Legal Reference Library

Dealing with the question relating to admissibility of confessional statement made by an accused under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, 1872, the Court explained the law by stating that Section 25 of the Evidence Act provides that no confession made to a Police Officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence. Section 26 provides that no confession made by any person while he is in the custody of a police officer, unless it be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, shall be proved as against such person. Section 27 is in the form of a proviso, it lays down how much of an information received from accused may be proved. The bench of H.L. Dattu, CJ and Arun Mishra, J further explained that for application of section 27 of Evidence Act, admissible portion of confessional statement has to be found as to a fact which were the immediate cause of the discovery and only that would be part of legal evidence and not the rest. In a statement, if something new is discove...

Dealing with the question of admissibility of confessional statements so as to establish criminal conspiracy vide Section 120B of the Penal Code, 1860, a bench comprising of  Dr. A.K. Sikri and UU Lalit observed that the High Court’s approach of relying upon the confessional statements, otherwise inadmissible, with the aid of 'other connected evidence' is contrary to law. The inadmissibility of confessional statements, as submitted by advocate Sushil Kumar on behalf of the Appellants,  stood accepted and established by the Court owing to the joint operation of Sections 25 and 26 of the  Evidence Act, 1872,whereby confession to a police officer and confession made by an accused in police custody do not stand proved as against him. The definition of the term 'confession' meanwhile, was restricted to “mean a direct acknowledgment of guilt and not the admission of an incriminating fact, howsoever grave or conclusive”. Extending its deliberation to Section 27 of the Eviden...