Section –  30 of Evidence Act

Confession of Co -accused

• 30. Consideration of proved confession affecting person making it and others jointly under trial for same offence
• 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 makes such confession.
• Explanation—”Offence” as used in this section, includes the abetment of, or attempt to commit, the offence.
• Illustrations
  1. A and B are jointly tied 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.
  2. 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.
• This section is an exception to the general rule that a confession of an accused is inadmissible against other accused persons who are jointly tried. It makes a departure from the common law of England.
• Section 30 lays down when there is more than one accused who are jointly tried for the same offence and a confession made by one of them at the trial, the court may take into consideration the confession against all accused [(Illustration (a)].
• “The principle on which the confession of one accused is allowed to be used against co-accused is that self- implications are supported to provide some guarantee of the truth of accusation made against the other.” It is also not necessary that the confession of the co accused must be made to a magistrate
• The principle that a confession by one accused may be taken into consideration against coaccused is founded on:
  1. more than one accused are jointly tried,
  2. they are tried for the same offence,
  3. confession should have been made by one of them, and
  4. the confession should be legally proved.
• On the whole, the section has not been looked upon with favour by the judges who have to administer the law, and it has been laid down in an uninterrupted series of cases that a confession by an accused is not to be treated as “evidence” (in the sense used in Section 3) against his co-accused, but it may only be taken into consideration (i.e. an element in the consideration of all facts in the case) along with other evidence and that a conviction based solely on such confession send unless substantially corroborated by independent evidence”—SARKAR.

• The Privy Council once observed that “a confession of a co-accused is obviously evidence of a very weak type. It does not come within the definition of ‘evidence’ contained in Section 3.
• It is not required to be given on oath, nor in the presence of the accused, and it cannot be tested by cross-examination.” It again observed that “the confession is only one element in the consideration of all the facts proved in the case. It can be put into the scale and weighed with the other evidence.”

• The Supreme Court in the case of Pancho v. State of Haryana [7], held that the confessions made by the co-accused do not have much evidentiary value and they cannot be considered as a substantive piece of evidence. Therefore the confession made by the co-accused can only be used to corroborate the conclusion drawn out by other probative evidence.

• In Kashmira Singh vs the State of Madhya Pradesh (1952), it was held that confession of a co-accusedis a weak type of evidence as:
• It is not required to be given on oath.
• It cannot be tested by cross-examination.

Confession of co-accused and testimony of accomplice:

• The confession of co-accused under section 30 does not have higher probative value than that of the testimony of an accomplice in the court of law.
• The confession of co-accused alone is not legally sufficient to uphold a conviction.

Watch this topic – Section – 24 – 30 of Evidence Act – Confession of Co-accused Part – 7 on YouTube