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ecution should be launched or not. At that stage when information is being collected there is no accusation against the person from whom information is being collected. It may be that after the information has been collected the Central Government or the Reserve Bank may come to the conclusion that there is no case for prosecution and the person concerned may never be accused. It cannot therefore be predicted that the person from whom information is being collected Under Section 19 is necessarily in the position of an accused. The question whether he should be made an accused is generally decided after information is collected and it is when a show cause notice is issued…”

After wading through murky waters of who is ‘an accused’, it is necessary that the legal conundrum regarding who is to be ‘a witness’ be addressed. This was laid to rest in State of Bombay v. Kathi Kalu Oghad [37] where the issue came up before the judiciary as to what/who would constitute a “witness” and whether collection of blood samples and handwriting amounted to self-incrimination. It was held that a person can 'be a witness' not merely by giving oral evidence but also by producing documents or making intelligible gestures as in the case of a dumb witness [38] . Court went on to observe that 'to be a witness' means 'to furnish evidence' and includes not only oral testimony or statements in writing of the accused but also production of a thing or of evidence by other modes and that calling upon a person accused of an offence to give his thumb impression, his impression of palm or fingers or of sample handwriting or signature comes within the ambit of 'to be a witness' which has been equated to 'to furnish evidence'. Sinha.C.J went on to state: -

“… When an accused person is called upon by the Court or any other authority holding an investigation to give his finger impression or signature or a specimen of his handwriting, he is not giving any testimony of the nature of a 'personal testimony'. The giving of a 'personal testimony' must depend upon his volition. He can make any kind of statement or may refuse to make any statement. But his finger impressions or his handwriting, in spite of efforts at concealing the true nature of it by dissimulation cannot be changed of their intrinsic character. Thus, the giving of finger impressions or of specimen writing or of signatures by an accused person, though it may amount to furnishing evidence in the larger sense, is not included within the expression 'to be a witness'.” [39]

Testimonial Compulsion

Compulsion is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as:

“Compulsion: 1) The act of compelling; the state of being compelled.Compel: 1) To cause or bring about by force, threats, or overwhelming pressure.”

Every positive volitional act that furnishes evidence is testimony, and testimonial compulsion connotes coercion that procures the positive volitional evidentiary acts of the person, as opposed to the negative attitude of silence or submission on his part. [40] Compulsion here does not include the mere fact that an accused person was in police custody at the time he made the state would not, by itself, be the foundation for the inference of law that that the accused was compelled to make the statement. An accused person is not regarded as having been compelled to be a witness against himself merely because he made a statement while in police本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。