Select the correct statement with respect to section 157 of the Evidence Act –

(i) The words ‘at or about the time’ in section 157 of the Evidence Act are the crucial words to judge the time when the statement was made.

(ii) Whether the statement was made at or about the time of the incident can be decided on the facts of each case.

(iii) No hard and fast rule can be laid down for it. However, these words ‘at or about the time’ in section 157 of the Evidence Act must receive a pragmatic and liberal construction.

(iv) The words ‘at or about the time’ in section 157 of the Evidence Act must receive strict construction and not pragmatic and liberal construction.

(v) The principle is that the time interval between the incident and the utterance of the statement should not be such as to afford occasion for reflection or even contemplation.

(vi) If the time interval was so short as between the two that the mind of the witness who made the statement was well connected with the incident without anything more seeping into, such statement has a credence.

(vii) And hence can be used, though not as substantive evidence, as corroborating evidence, on the principle adumbrated in section 157 of the Evidence Act. 

(viii) The main test is whether the statement was made as early as can reasonably be expected in the circumstances of the case and before there was opportunity for tutoring or concoction.

(ix) The section envisages two categories of statements of witnesses which can be used for corroboration. First is the statement made by a witness to any person ‘at or about

the time when the fact took place’. The second is the statement made by him to any authority legally bound to investigate the fact.

(x) The section envisages two categories of statements of witnesses which can be used  for corroboration. First is the statement made by a witness to any authority legally 

bound to investigate the fact ‘at or about the time when the fact took place. The second is the statement made by him to any person’.