In a sexual molestation case, the victim’s evidence alone can be the sole basis of conviction if it is wholly reliable and of sterling quality, observed the Supreme Court in Shamsudheen v State of Kerala[2026:KER:68562].
The court held, “In a prosecution alleging commission of sexual molestation, the evidence given by the prosecutrix or the victim, when found to be wholly reliable and of sterling quality, the same can be the sole basis of conviction, even without any corroboration.”
The Supreme Court, in Santosh Prasad @ Santosh Kumar vs The State Of Bihar [AIR 2020 SC 985] held that the conviction of an accused in Rape Cases cannot be done on the basis of sole testimony of the Prosecutrix unless she passes the test of “Sterling Witness”. The “sterling witness” should be of a very high quality and calibre whose version should, therefore, be unassailable. The court considering the version of such witness should be in a position to accept it for its face value without any hesitation. To test the quality of such a witness, the status of the witness would be immaterial and what would be relevant is the truthfulness of the statement made by such a witness.
