Important Legal Definitions

A witness called by a party who exhibits an adverse disposition or testifies contrary to their own earlier recorded police/investigative statements, enabling the party calling them to cross-examine their own witness with the leave of the court.

In Sat Paul v. Delhi Administration, the Supreme Court held that the evidence of a hostile witness is not completely washed off the record; those parts of the deposition that are corroborated can still be relied upon by the court.