Difference between Proof and Evidence are given below:
The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. But there is a real difference between them. There is a relationship of ends and means. Proof is a state of mind which it is the object of the evidence to produce. The most pernicious use of the word proof is in connection with burden of proof.
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The expression burden of proof is generally used in both the senses, i.e. burden of establishing case and burden of evidence. The burden of proof, properly so called never shifts either in criminal or civil cases. But burden of adducing evidence may shift.
If the evidence adduced before the Court on the existence of a fact satisfies the Court, it is “proved”, if the evidence adduced before the Court on the existence of a fact does not satisfy the Court, the Court comes to conclusion that such a fact is not in existence, and thus it is “disproved”, if the judicial mind lies between two states of minds “proved” and “disproved”, and is unable to decide how the matter precisely stands, that state of judicial mind is “not proved”.
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This state t legates proof and disproof the distinction between “proved”, ‘disproved” and “not proved” is in degree than in the form. These three states of judicial mind are defined in Section 3 of the Indian Evidence Act.