Anusha Misra, Nalsar University of Law
Introduction
Confessions are usually seen as the golden standard of police investigations although there is evidence doubting the reliability of confessions. Before analysing what amounts to judicial confession, it becomes necessary to understand the evidentiary value of confession.
Section 80 provides the evidentiary value of the judicial confession and states that a confession which is made before the magistrate is legitimate and valid.
Sections 24 and 27 of the Indian Evidence Act deal with the admissibility and relevance of extra-judicial confessions along with discovery of facts. The admissibility of confession made to an authority that is not judicial is dealt under Section 24. Section 27 deals with the admissibility of a fact that is a consequence of the information given by the accused while in custody.
Confession as a concept presumes that it must entail acceptance of guilt or acknowledge the facts that constitute a crime. Lord Atkin in Pakala Narayan Swami v Emperor1 stated that a confession acknowledges the facts that constitute the crime. However, recognition of an incriminating truth be it conclusively or severely incriminating does not constitute a confession alone. The Supreme Court in Nishi Kant Jha v State of Bihar2 found that it was possible to rely solely on the confessional declaration.
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