The Indian Evidence Act, 1872
– In criminal proceedings, the fact that the accused person has a bad character, is irrelevant, unless evidence has been given that he has a good character, in which case it becomes relevant. Explanation 1.––This section does not apply to cases in which the bad character of any person is itself a fact in issue. Explanation 2. ––A previous conviction is relevant as evidence of bad character.]
IEA §54 → BSA §49 per the official NCRB Sankalan table.
Source & version
Official text: India Code (official) ↗
Official India Code text: The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872), English PDF (iea_1872.pdf) retrieved via Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot 2021-09-03 of indiacode.nic.in (portal unreachable from ingest network). Extracted via pdftotext 26.07 -bbox and @nexlex/ingest inline parser on 2026-07-15. Repealed by BSA 2023 w.e.f. 2024-07-01. Automated parse; footnotes/amendment history excluded; spot-verified; full clause-level proofread pending. Section 114B, inserted by Chhattisgarh Act 25 of 2015 and published as central law, was removed on 2026-08-02 and is now recorded as a State amendment (D-052/D-053).
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