Law: Evidence Act, (1 of 1872)

Section: 24,25,26

(a) Expert evidence----- ----Identity of handwriting-Declared unsatisfactory in. circumstances of case. (b) Confession---- ---Judicial or extra-judicial, retracted or un-retracted-Provided voluntary and true, conviction may be based on sole basis of such confession-As a matter of law no corroboration of confession needed-When relevancy established evidentiary value of confession matter of prudence rather than of law-Necessity of caution. (Per Muhammad Munir, C. J.)-It is an unquestionable proposition of law that if a -Court believes a confession, judicial or extra-judicial, retracted or not retracted, to be voluntary and true, it can convict the accused on its sole basis. At the same time Courts have always treated extra-judicial confessions as suspicious evidence and have emphasised the necessity of great care and caution in acting upon them in the absence of corroborative evidence. But during the-last 100 years or so that the statutes of evidence have been in force in this sub-continent it has never been ruled that a conviction based on an extra-judicial confession is an illegality or that the rule requiring corroboration of such a confession has the force of law. When the relevancy of a confession has been established, the use to be made of it is not a matter of law but of prudence. Where a confession is not vitiated by any of the circum­stances mentioned in sections 24 to 26 and is thus a relevant fact, a conviction may be based on it provided the Court that is called upon to consider the confession believes it to be true. So far as English Law and the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act are concerned, there is no legal impediment to convicting a man on his own confession, the making of which he denies at the trial but is proved by satisfactory evidence. The use to be made of a properly proved confession even if denied or not adhered to at the trial is not a matter of law but prudence. The decision in Abdul Latif's case P L D 1952 F. C. 113) should not be taken as laying down the rule that where there is no evidence in corroboration of a confession, the Court is not competent to convict. The language used by the majority in Abdul Latif's case has never…

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