Table of Contents
CONFESSION
- The word “confession” appears for the first time in Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act. But not defined in the act.
- Justice Stephen in his Digest of the law of Evidence defines confession as “confession is an admission made at any time by a person charged with a crime stating or suggesting the inference that he committed that crime.”
- In Pakala Narayan Swami v Emperor Lord Atkin observed
“ A confession must either admit in terms the offence or at any rate substantially all the facts which constitute the offence
Admission and confession
- Section 17 to 31 deals with admission generally and include Section 24 to 30 which deal with confession as distinguished from admission.
- According to the definition given under section 17 of Indian Evidence Act,1872, admission is a statement which suggests some inference as to the existence of a fact in issue or fact relevant to the issue.
Forms of confession
- Judicial Confession164 of Cr.P.C.
- Extra judicial Confession.
- Section 25 provides: “No confession made to a Police Officer shall be proved as against a person accused of an offense”.
Objective underlying this rule
- InQueen Empress v Babu Lal, 1898 it was observed that the objective underlying this rule is to prevent the practices of torture and oppression by police officers for the purpose of extorting confessions and securing convictions. If confession to a police officer is made admissible, the police officers would go to the heights of torturing the accused and compel him to make an involuntary statement merely for gaining credit, which would result in grave injustice.
Confession in Police Custody (Section 26)
- ‘No confession made by any person whilst he is in police custody unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, shall be proved as against such person’.
Police Custody
- “the custody is no mere physical custody.”
There must be two things in order to constitute custody.
- There must be some control imposed upon the movement of the confessioner.
- Such control must be imposed by some police officer indirectly.
- In R. v. Lester, the accused was being taken in a tonga by a police constable. In the absence of constable, the accused confessed to the tanga-driver that he committed the crime. The confession was held to be in police custody as the accused was in the custody of constable and it made no difference of his temporary absence.
- Effect Of Police Presence
- Statements During Investigation And Before Accusation
- Statement Not Amounting To Confession
Section 27- How Much Of Information Received From Accused May Be Proved:
- When any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequence of information received from a person accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer, so much of such information, whether it amounts to a confession or not, as relates distinctly to the fact thereby discovered, may be proved.
In Pandu Rang Kallu Patil v. State of Maharashtra,
- it was held by Supreme Court that section 27 of evidence act was enacted as proviso to sections of Section 25 and 26, which imposed a complete ban on admissibility of any confession made by accused either to police or at any one while in police custody. The object of making provision in section 27 was to permit a certain portion of statement made by an accused to Police Officer admissible in evidence whether or not such statement is confessional or non confessional.
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