Admissions and Confessions

After a minor car collision in Andheri, one driver says to the other, sorry, it was my fault, I was on the phone. Two months later he is sued, and his lawyer says the apology means nothing. Elsewhere, a suspect in police custody says, I killed him, and the police write it down. A confession like that is not treated the same way at all. Sections 15 to 25 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 draw the line: what a person says against himself may be used against him, but the law is deeply wary of confessions obtained under pressure.

In two minutes

An admission is a statement, oral, documentary or electronic, suggesting an inference as to a fact in issue or relevant fact and made by a person in the capacity the Adhiniyam lists; a confession is an admission of guilt in a criminal case, and sections 22 and 23 bar confessions caused by inducement, threat, coercion or promise by a person in authority, made to a police officer, or made in police custody, subject to the discovery proviso.

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