Section 145

Character evidence is treated cautiously in law because opinions about a person's reputation can be biased, based on rumor, or incomplete. To make sure such testimony is tested for reliability and fairness, the law ensures character witnesses are not treated as beyond question—they go through the same process of cross-examination and re-examination as factual witnesses, allowing courts to assess the credibility and basis of their statements.

Indian courts have generally treated this as a procedural clarification rather than a source of major disputes, since the right to cross-examine and re-examine witnesses is already a general principle under evidence law. Courts have relied on this provision (and its predecessor, Section 140 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872) to confirm that character witnesses do not get special immunity from being questioned, and that their testimony must be tested like any other oral evidence before being relied upon.

• Myth: Character witnesses just state their opinion and can't be questioned further.
  Fact: Under this provision, character witnesses can be cross-examined by the opposing side and re-examined by the side that called them, just like any other witness.