Determining "No Legal Evidence" or "Manifestly Inconsistent Evidence": Test, Method, and Its Application by a Session Judge in Criminal Revision Against an Order of Issue of Process

 I. The Nature of the Test

The inquiry into whether there is "no legal evidence" or evidence "manifestly inconsistent" with the accusation is not an exercise in weighing credibility, reliability, or sufficiency of evidence. It is a threshold, objective screening of what is placed on the record — distinct from trial adjudication. The court asks only whether any evidence touching the offence exists at all, or whether the material on record is irreconcilably self-contradictory — never whether existing evidence is convincing or likely to result in conviction.

II. Governing Legal Standard 

Print Page