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Indian Evidence Act, 1872 · Chapter II: Of the Relevancy of Facts · Admissions

Section 30: Consideration of proved confession affecting person making it and others jointly under trial for same offence

The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.

Now in the BSA section 24 (Consideration of proved confession affecting person making it and others jointly under trial for same offence)

In plain words

When several persons are tried jointly for the same offence, and a proved confession by one affects both themselves and others, the court can take it into consideration against the others too. "Offence" includes abetment and attempt.

Example: A and B are tried jointly for murdering C, and A said "B and I murdered C". The court may consider this against B. It could not if B were not being jointly tried.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Official text

When more persons than one are being tried jointly for the same offence, and a confession made by one of such persons affecting himself and some other of such persons is proved, the Court may take into consideration such confession as against such other person as well as against the person who makes such confession. [Explanation.––“Offence”, as used in this section, includes the abetment of, or attempt to commit, the offence.]2

Illustrations

(a) A and B are jointly tried for the murder of C. It is proved that A said––“B and I murdered C.” The Court may consider the effect of this confession as against B.

(b) A is on his trial for the murder of C. There is evidence to show that C was murdered by A and B, and that B said––“A and I murdered C”. This statement may not be taken into consideration by the Court against A, as B is not being jointly tried.

Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 30