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Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 — Section 23: Confession to a police officer

§ SECTION 23 · BSA 2023 · CHAPTER II — RELEVANCY OF FACTS

Confession to a police officer, or in police custody, when it shall not be proved

The custody walls: a confession made to a police officer, or made while in police custody, is walled out — unless a Magistrate is present. One narrow gate stays open: information that leads to a discovery.

How to read Section 23

Two bars, one Magistrate exception, one narrow discovery gate.

Bar 1 · to a police officer

No confession made to a police officer can be proved against the accused — full stop, however freely it was made.

Bar 2 · in police custody

No confession made while in police custody can be proved — unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate.

The discovery gate

If custody information leads to a fact discovered, only so much as relates distinctly to that fact — confession or not — may be proved.

The bare Act

The section in its own words — colour-keyed by what each phrase does.

Section 23 · verbatim

(1) No confession made to a police officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence.

(2) No confession made by any person while he is in the custody of a police officer, unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate shall be proved against him:

Provided that when any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequence of information received from a person accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer, so much of such information, whether it amounts to a confession or not, as relates distinctly to the fact discovered, may be proved.

In short: what the accused tells the police — or says in their custody — is walled out of the trial, because it is too easily manufactured. Only a Magistrate’s presence, or a real discovery, lets any of it through.

→ The 2023 text gathers the old three sections of 1872 — confession to police, confession in custody, and the discovery proviso — into a single section with two subsections and one proviso.

Glossary

confession

An accused person’s admission of the offence — the gravest admission, and the one this section walls off from the police.

police officer

Read broadly — anyone exercising police-style powers of investigation, not only a uniformed constable.

custody of a police officer

Not just the lock-up — any control or surveillance by police that keeps the accused from moving freely.

immediate presence of a Magistrate

The Magistrate is physically there as the confession is made — the one setting in which a custody confession may be proved.

fact discovered

A real thing or state of affairs actually found because of the information — the trigger that opens the proviso.

relates distinctly

The exact slice of the information that pointed to the discovery — and nothing beyond it.

The picture

The two custody walls — and the one narrow gate.

the accused“I did it”BAR 1to a police officerBAR 2in police custodygap — a Magistrate is presentTHE COURTdiscovery gate: information → a fact actually found → only the slice that relates distinctly may be proved

The section, part by part

Tap a part — the picture-story tells it first; the word-by-word text and example follow.

the two barsWhat the police may not prove

In one lineA confession made to a police officer, or while in police custody, is kept out of the trial — unless a Magistrate is present to hear it.
1Confesses to policeat the station, tothe investigating officer2Or while in custody— unless a Magistrateis present as he speaks3KEPT OUTcannot be provedagainst the accusedconfessions to the police are walled out — too easily manufactured
No confession made to a police officer⚠ bar 1 · to policeanything the accused says to a police officer…
shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence.the effect…cannot be proved against him at all — however freely it was said.
No confession made by any person while he is in the custody of a police officer,⚠ bar 2 · in custodynor anything said while in police custody…
unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistratethe one door…except when a Magistrate is right there as it is made.
shall be proved against him:the effectotherwise, it shall not be proved against him.
ExampleUnder questioning at the police station, A tells the sub-inspector, “I stabbed C” — Bar 1: inadmissible. Back in the lock-up he repeats it to a warder — Bar 2: still out, because he is in custody. Only a confession made before a Magistrate would stand.
✗ Not thisThe bar is about who hears it and where — not about pressure. Even a calm, unprompted, wholly voluntary confession to a police officer is barred. And “custody” is not only handcuffs — police control that stops you leaving is enough.

the discovery gateWhen custody words may still be proved

In one lineIf what the accused told the police actually leads to something being found, only the exact words that led to it — confession or not — may be proved.
1Tells police in custody“the knife is underthe neem tree”2Police dig — and find ita fact is actuallydiscovered3ONLY THAT SLICE“under the neem tree”— nothing moreno discovery, no gate — only the words that led to the find get in
Provided that when any fact is deposed to as discoveredthe trigger · a discoverythe gate opens only if some fact is actually found…
in consequence of information received from a person accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer,the source…because of what an accused in police custody told them.
so much of such information,only that muchthen only that portion of what he said…
whether it amounts to a confession or not,confession or not…even if that portion is itself a confession…
as relates distinctly to the fact discovered,⚠ distinctly · the leash…that points directly to the thing found — and nothing wider.
may be proved.the gate opensthis narrow slice may be proved.
ExampleIn custody, A says, “I hid the knife under the neem tree behind my house” — and the knife is dug up there. The words that led to it, “under the neem tree behind my house”, may be proved — even though the same breath (“I hid the knife”) is a confession. His added “and I stabbed C with it” does not come in through this gate.
✗ Not thisThe gate is narrow. It opens only if a fact is really discovered — a false lead that finds nothing lets in nothing. And only the part that pointed to the discovery enters, never the whole confession around it: “I killed him and threw the body in the well” → if the body is found, only the location comes in, not the killing.

Connected provisions

§ 22

Confession by inducement

Section 22 tests the confession’s freedom; section 23 tests who heard it and where.

§ 15

Admission defined

A confession is the gravest species of admission — here it meets its strictest wall.

§ 24 · next

Confession & co-accused

Next: when a proved confession may be weighed against a jointly-tried co-accused.

lineage

IEA 1872, §§ 25–27

Police-officer bar, custody bar, and the discovery proviso — three sections of 1872, now one.