him. In the event, an order under the said provision is passed, deposition of any witness taken in the absence of an accused may be used against him if the deponent is dead or incapable of giving evidence or cannot be found or his presence cannot be procured without any amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable. 32. This Court in the case of Nirmal Singh v. State of Haryana1 while considering the issue that under what circumstances and by what method, the statement of a witness under Section 299 of CrPC could have been tendered in the case for being admissible 1 (2000) 4 SCC 41 20under Section 33 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and whether they can form the basis of conviction, held as follows: “4. …..Section 299 of the Code of Criminal Procedure consists of two parts. The first part speaks of the circumstances under which witnesses produced by the prosecution could be examined in the absence of the accused and the