Section 73(1) in Criminal Courts - Rules and Orders
(1)The recording of a confession under Section 164 of the Code is a matter which requires the utmost care. In many cases a confession is the mainspring of the prosecution case. The Courts are vigilant in seeing that a confession is relevant under Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act, and consequently any defect in the procedure of recording a confession giving rise to any suspicion as to its relevancy may be fatal to a case and may lead to considerable waste of public money and the time of officers engaged in the investigation, prosecution and trial of the case. A perusal of any standard commentary on the Indian Evidence Act or the Code will indicate both the care with which the Courts scrutinize the circumstances in which a confession was recorded and the defects in procedure such scrutiny often reveals. The wording of Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act is wide and should be carefully studied. It is sufficient to make a confession irrelevant if it is made because of coercion on inducement proceeding from a person in authority sufficient to give grounds which appear to the accused reasonable for supposing that he would gain an advantage. The frequency with which confessions are retracted on the ground that they were not free and voluntary renders it essential that a confession be recorded in circumstances which prevent any suggestion that the accused was under the influence of any person interested in obtaining the confession.
