Indian Evidence Act 1872 Notes

INDIAN EVIDENCE ACT 1872 NOTES – 7TH SEMESTER
Date- 24/11/2020
Section 24- Confessions when irrelevant
The term “Confession” means- to admit, own up or accept blame. In other words, we can say that
confession means to acknowledge some personal fact that an individual would ostensibly prefer
to keep secret. The word was defined under section 78 of the old English Act- Police and
Criminal Evidence Act, 1984 as the evidence made by the suspect on the admission of the
offence or the guilt.
Under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the term has not been defined but has been mentioned
under the heading of “Admission”, which implies that confessions are a subset of
admissions. Section 17 of the Indian Evidence Act, defines admission as any statement made in
either form such as oral, documentary or in electronic form which has enough probative value to
suggest or conclude a relevant fact.
A confession is the suspect’s admission of guilt. Evidence collected from an accused also fails to
be credible, since no proof can supersede an accused’s overt confession. The principle habemus
optimum-testim, confidante reum means that the best evidence against him used in such cases
was a confession against an accused.
In Pakala Narayan Swami v. Emperor, it was observed that a confession must be accepted either
in relation to the offence or all the facts constituting the crime are relevant at any point.
In Plavinder Kaur v. State of Punjab, SC supports the decision of the Privy Council in Pakala
Narayan Swami case over the explanation that, confession must either confess the guilt or that it
fully acknowledges all the evidence. Secondly, a mixed statement, that will result in acquittal,
including any confessional arguments, is no confession. The Court cannot remove the
exculpatory portion of an argument and will issue the judgement on the basis of the statement’s
inculpatory component.
Forms of Confession
Confession may be of different types according to the matter of cases. It is differentiated into two
forms: Judicial confession and extra-judicial confession.
 Judicial Confession- Judicial confession is also known as formal confession. Sec 80 of

the Indian Evidence Act gives evidentiary value to the judicial confession and
expresses that a confession made before a Magistrate or the Court of law shall be
presumed to be true and the accused can be tried with the offence.
It is also a plea of guilt as per the provision of Indian Constitution explained under Article
20(3), otherwise, any confession made by an accused will have no evidentiary value and hence
he will not be held guilty of committing an offence.
 Extra-Judicial Confession- Extra-judicial confession is also known as Informal

confession. Any statement made outside the court by the suspect or defendant tends to
show that he is guilty of the offence for which he is charged or suspected (Sec-
24, 25 and 26, Indian Evidence Act). These confessions can be oral or written.
In the case of Heramba Brahma v. State of Assam, AIR 1982 SC 1592, it was held that all the
confessional statements made to the police or any other law enforcement officers qualify as an
extra-judicial confession.
In C.K. Ravendram v. State of Kerala, AIR 2000 SC 369, it was held that if a person confesses to
the commission of an offense, the same can be used in the Court against him or her for the crime
for which he made the confession, but it must have been willingly done.
In the case of Sahadevan v. State of Tamil Nadu, SC while deciding the case has made some
principles where the court has to check such principles before admitting the confession of the
accused. Those principles are-
1. Extrajudicial confessions are by itself a poor kind of evidence and such claims must be
tested successfully by the court.
2. Extrajudicial confession should be made by the will of the individual and that
argument should be valid.
3. The evidentiary significance of extrajudicial confession immediately rises when other
facts of this kind confirm it.
4. The confessor’s argument must prove his guilt as is proved in the judicial proceedings
by any other evidence at issue.
 Retracted Confession- The term retraction means the act of drawing back something.
This type of confession is made voluntarily by the confessor earlier and after that, it is
revoked or retracted by the same person. Retracted confession can be used against the
person who is confessing any retracted statements if it is substantiated by any other
independent and corroborative evidence. In Pyare Lal v. State of Rajasthan, SC lifted
that a retracted confession can form any other legal grounds to establish any
conviction only if the court satisfies that it was true and made by his or her own will.
But the court confirms that the conviction cannot be solely made on such confession
until and unless they are corroborated.
 Confession by co-accused- According to the SC, the confessions made by the co-
accused do not have much evidentiary value and they cannot be considered as a
substantive piece of evidence (Pancho v. State of Haryana). Hence, the confession
made by the co-accused can only be used to corroborate the conclusion drawn out by
other probative evidence.
Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872
This section says that in criminal proceedings, confession made by an accused person is
meaningless if confession appears to have been induced by any incitement, threat or pledge,
relating to the accused person, coming from an authorized person and, in the opinion of the
court, sufficient to give the accused person reasons, which would seem fair to him for believing
that he would gain any advantage or escape some temporary poor in relation to the proceedings
against him by making it.
A statement made by a suspect is meaningless in criminal proceedings if the court finds that the
confession is caused by any incitement, threat or pledge to the accused, proceeding from a
person in authority and sufficient, in the court’s opinion, to give fair grounds to the accused
person for believing that, if he received any advantage or prevented some evil of a temporary
nature in connection with the proceedings against him, it would do so.

Indian Evidence Act 1872 Notes

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INDIAN EVIDENCE ACT 1872 NOTES – 7TH SEMESTER

Section 24- Confessions when irrelevant

 Judicial Confession- Judicial confession is also known as formal confession. Sec 80 of

 Extra-Judicial Confession- Extra-judicial confession is also known as Informal

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