Should the court rely on the defence taken by the defendant if he fails to give his evidence before the court and gets cross-examined?

[Educator]

Having not entered into the witness box and having not presented himself for cross-examination, an adverse presumption has to be drawn against him on the basis of principles contained in illustration (g) of Section 114 of the Evidence Act.16. As early as in 1927, the Privy Council in Sardar Gurbakhsh Singh v. Gurdial Singh and Anr. MANU/PR/0049/1927, took note of a practice prevalent in those