Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 expressly declares that a confession made by an accused to a police officer shall not be proved.
The principle underlying this provision is that if confessions to police officers were allowed to be proved in evidence, the police would torture the accused and thus force him to confess a crime which he might not have committed. A confession so obtained would be obviously unreliable. It would not be voluntary and would be made without free consent and such would be irrelevant whatever might be its form. Thus, the reasons for which this policy was adopted when this Act was enacted in 1872, are probably still valid and it was not changed or modified in any form till date.
I was held by the court in R V. Murugan Ramasay[1] that the police authority itself, however, carefully controlled, carries a menace to those brought suddenly under its shadow and the law recognizes and provides against the danger of such persons making incriminating confessions with the intention of placating authority and without regard to the truth of what they are saying.
Hence, the provision clearly states that confessions made to a police officer, shall not be proved as against a person accused of any offence.
[1] AIR 1977 SC 1579
Post Contributed By:
Souradeep Rakshit
Indian Institute of Legal Studies
