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The Post-mortem Doctor is an Expert under Section 45 of the Evidence Act and based on the injuries found by him on the body, he gives his opinion about the cause of the death. This is relevant under Section 7 of the Evidence Act. He traces the cause from the effect. In other words, the fact-in-issue is, whether "A" murdered the deceased and the effect of murder is the death of the deceased. From the dead body, by a process of reverse engineering, the Post-Mortem Doctor decides the cause of death, that too 'in his opinion'. This is not conclusive proof of that fact, because it is once again the opinion of the expert which has been made relevant by Section 45 of the Evidence Act. Similarly, when the post-mortem doctor notes the sex, the age of the deceased, they become relevant under Section 9 of the Evidence Act. The evidence of the post-mortem doctor is not a substantive piece of evidence to prove the fact-in-issue, but they are substantive evidence to prove the facts relevant under Sections 7 and 9. When there is direct evidence to prove the fact-in-issue, for example, if an eye witness says that he saw five accused cut the deceased at five specified points, and if five injuries in those specified points are noted by the post-mortem doctor during autopsy, then we say that the evidence of the eye witness has been corroborated by the evidence of the post-mortem doctor that he found the injuries on the said places.