Yes — and this is settled law that applies in full force in Nashik's Magistrate, Sessions, and Bombay HC proceedings. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 sets no minimum number of witnesses for a conviction. What matters is the quality of testimony assessed against the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, not the quantity of witnesses examined.

The governing authority is Vadivelu Thevar v. State of Madras, which the Bombay HC applies consistently. A witness in the "wholly reliable" category — consistent, credible, corroborated by the surrounding circumstances, and inspiring genuine judicial confidence — is sufficient to convict even as the sole witness. Conversely, even multiple witnesses who are inconsistent, interested, or inherently improbable cannot sustain a conviction. In Nashik's courts, as elsewhere, victims in serious personal offences have provided the sole basis for convictions upheld by the Bombay HC where the testimony was wholly reliable.

For your defence, this means the battle in a case relying on a single or small number of witnesses is fought entirely on credibility, and cross-examination is your primary weapon. Your counsel must probe every inconsistency between the witness's Section 180 BNSS statement and their court testimony, expose every partisan motive or interested relationship with the complainant, highlight every element of improbability in the narrative, and demonstrate where independent corroboration is entirely absent. If those challenges succeed and reasonable doubt remains, acquittal follows regardless of whether one witness or ten were examined. Do not be comforted by a thin prosecution witness list alone — everything turns on how that witness holds up under examination in the Nashik court. The trial advocates at the Nashik panel of Aapka Legal Advice can plan and conduct this cross-examination.