General Concept of Confession
The term confession is not defined anywhere in Evidence Act. But it is thought that an Admission in case of a criminal matter is Confession. The same was stated by Stephen in his digest that that a confession is an admission made at anytime by a person charged with a crime, stating or suggesting the inference that he committed the crime. However, Privy Council, in case of Pakala Narayan Swami vs Emperor AIR 1939, did not accept this definition. In this case Lord Atkin observed that no statement that contains self exculpatory matter can amount to a confession. Further, a confession must either admit in terms of the offence or at any rate substantially all the facts which constitute the offence. An offence of a gravely incriminating fact, is not in itself a confession. For example, an admission that the accused is the over of and was in recent possession of the knife or revolver which caused death with no explanation of any other man's possession, is not a confession even though it strongly suggests that the accused has committed the murder.
The decision by Privy Council in Pakala Narayan Swami case was approved by SC in the case of Palvinder Kaur vs State of Punjab, AIR 1952. In this case, Palvinder was on trial for murder of her husband along with another, who all the time remained absconding. In her statement to the court, her husband was hobbyist photographer and used to keep handy photo developing material which is quick poison. On this occasion, he was ill and she brought him some medicine and the medicine was kept near the liquid developer and by mistake swallowed the liquid and died. She got afraid and with the help of the absconder, she dumped the body in the well. The statement, thus, partially admitted guilt and partially showed innocence. Here, the lower courts sorted out the exculpatory part and convicted her on the inculpatory part. However, SC rejected this approach and held that the rule regarding confession and admission is that they must either be accepted or rejected as whole.
Difference between Confession and Admission
This brings us to the main difference between admission and confession. An admission is a statement that may or may not be a conclusive evidence of a fact in issue or relevant fact but to be a confession, the admission must conclusively prove the guilt of the maker of the admission. For example, in the case of Veera Ibrahim vs State of Maharashtra, AIR 1976, a person being prosecuted under Customs Act told the customs officer that he did not know that the goods loaded in his truck were contraband nor were they loaded with his permission. SC held that the statement was not a confession but it did amount to admission of an incriminating fact that the truck was loaded with contraband material.
Thus, a statement which may not amount to confession may still be relevant as admission. Only a voluntary and direct acknowledgment of guilt is confession, but when a confession falls short of actual admission of guilt, it may nevertheless be used as evidence under Section 21.
Regarding admission that contains multiple sentences, Justice Thomas, of SC stated the law in the case of Lokeman Shah vs State of WB, AIR 2001 as follows -
The test of discerning whether a statement recorded by a judicial magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC, is confessional or not is not to determine it by dissecting the statement into different sentences and then to pick out some as not inculpative.The statement must be read as a whole and then only the court should decide whether it contains admissions of his inculpatory involvement in the offence. If the result of that test is positive the the statement is confessional otherwise not.
Classification of Confessions:
A confession may occur in any form. It may be made to the court itself, or to anybody outside the court. In this manner, a confession may be divided into two categories - Judicial Confession and Extra-judicial Confession.
Judicial Confession - A judicial confession is a confession that is made in front of a magistrate or in a court. It may be made in the course of a judicial proceeding.
Extra - Judicial Confession - An extra-judicial confession is a confession that is made by the party elsewhere than before a magistrate or in a court. It is admissible in evidence under Section 21 and it is proved by the witnesses who had heard the speaker's words constituting the confession.
A confession ma even consist of conversation with oneself. For example, in case of Sahoo vs State of UP, AIR 1966, an accused who was charged with murder of his daughter in law with whom he was always quarreling was seen on the day of the murder going out of the home saying words to the effect, "I have finished her and with her the daily quarrels.". The statement was held to be a valid confession because it is not necessary for the relevance of a confession that it should communicate to some other person.
Relevancy of Confessions:
Confessions when Not Relevant
A confession becomes irrelevant and thus, inadmissible, in situations described in the Sections 24, 25, and 26.
1. Section 24 - Confession caused by inducement, threat, or promise from a person in authority - Confession made by an accused is irrelevant in a criminal proceeding if the making of the confession appears to the court to have been caused by inducement, threat, or promise, made by any person in authority and that in the view of the court such inducement, threat, or promise gives reasonable ground to the person that by making the confession he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporary nature in reference to the proceedings against him.
Md. Haider Ali
Senior Lecturer
Department of Law
Daffodil International University.
