The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled that the provision in Indian Evidence Act that a person missing for long and not heard of for more than seven years could be presumed dead would come into effect only the day after the completion of the period.
Disagreeing with the order of a single judge, a bench of Justices V.Ramasubramanian and N.Kirubakaran ruled that the presumption could come to effect only on the day after the completion of seven years.
The single judge had in his order said that a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus conductor should be considered to have died on the date when he went missing in May 1999 for settlement of terminal benefits to his heirs.
Passing orders on an appeal, the Bench said there was an inherent danger in presuming that the date from which a person went missing could be taken to be the date of death.
"If it is so taken, many claims that could be made by his legal heirs would become barred by time despite the fact that the very presumption of death could be raised only after seven years from the date on which he was last heard of," the judges said.
