Indian Evidence Act, 1872 · Chapter II: Of the Relevancy of Facts · Character when relevant
Section 55: Character as affecting damages
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.
In plain words
In civil cases, a person's character is relevant if it affects the amount of damages they should receive.
- For sections 52 to 55, "character" includes reputation and disposition, and except under section 54, only general reputation and disposition can be proved, not particular acts.
A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.
Official text
In civil cases, the fact that the character of any person is such as to affect the amount of damages which he ought to receive, is relevant.
Explanation.––In sections 52, 53, 54 and 55, the word “character” includes both reputation and disposition; but, [except as provided in section 54], evidence may be given only of general reputation and general disposition, and not of particular acts by which reputation or disposition were shown.
Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.
Supreme Court judgments citing the section 55
No Supreme Court judgment in our database cites this section yet.