Admissions (Section 17- 31)

Section 17: Admission defined–

An admission is a statement, oral or documentary or contained in electronic form], which suggests any inference as to any fact in issue or relevant fact, and which is made by any of the persons, and under the circumstances, hereinafter mentioned. 

Section 18: Admission by party to proceeding or his agent –

Statements made by a party to the proceeding, or by an agent to any such party, whom the Court regards, under the circumstances of the case, as expressly or impliedly authorized by him to make them, are admissions.

 by suitor in representative character. –– Statements made by parties to suits suing or sued in a representative character, are not admissions, unless they were made while the party making them held that character. 

Statements made by –– 

(1) by party interested in subject-matter.–– persons who have any proprietary or pecuniary interest in the subject-matter of the proceeding, and who make the statement in their character of persons so interested, or 

(2) by person from whom interest derived.–– persons from whom the parties to the suit have derived their interest in the subject-matter of the suit, are admissions, if they are made during the continuance of the interest of the persons making the statements. 

Section 19: Admissions by persons whose position must be proved as against party to suit –

Statements made by persons whose position or liability, it is necessary to prove as against any party to the suit, are admissions if such statements would be relevant as against such persons in relation to such position or liability in a suit brought by or against them, and they are made whilst the person making them occupies such position or is subject to such liability. 

Section 20: Admissions by persons expressly referred to by party to suit –

Statements made by persons to whom a party to the suit has expressly referred for information in reference to a matter in dispute are admissions. 

Section 21: Proof of admissions against persons making them, and by or on their behalf –

Admissions are relevant and may be proved as against the person who makes them or his representative in interest; but they cannot be proved by or on behalf of the person who makes them or by his representative in interest, except in the following cases: 

(1) An admission may be proved by or on behalf of the person making it, when it is of such a nature that, if the person making it were dead, it would be relevant as between third persons under section 32. 

(2) An admission may be proved by or on behalf of the person making it, when it consists of a statement of the existence of any state of mind or body, relevant or in issue, made at or about the time when such state of mind or body existed, and is accompanied by conduct rendering its falsehood improbable. 

(3) An admission may be proved by or on behalf of the person making it, if it is relevant otherwise than as an admission. 

Section 22: When oral admissions as to contents of documents are relevant –

Oral admissions as to the contents of a document are not relevant, unless and until the party proposing to prove them shows that he is entitled to give secondary evidence of the contents of such document under the rules hereinafter contained, or unless the genuineness of a document produced is in question. 

Section 22A: When oral admission as to contents of electronic records are relevant –

Oral admissions as to the contents of electronic records are not relevant, unless the genuineness of the electronic record produced is in question.

Section 23: Admissions in civil cases when relevant –

In civil cases no admission is relevant, if it is made either upon an express condition that evidence of it is not to be given, or under circumstances from which the Court can infer that the parties agreed together that evidence of it should not be given. 

Section 24: Confession caused by inducement, threat or promise, when irrelevant in criminal proceeding–

A confession made by an accused person is irrelevant in a criminal proceeding, if the making of the confession appears to the Court to have been caused by any inducement, threat or 2 promise having reference to the charge against the accused person, proceeding from a person in authority and sufficient, in the opinion of the Court, to give the accused person grounds which would appear to him reasonable for supposing that by making it he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him. 

Section 25: Confession to police-officer not to be proved –

No confession made to a police-officer3 , shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence. 

Section 26: Confession by accused while in custody of police not to be proved against him –

No confession made by any person whilst he is in the custody of a police-officer, unless it be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, shall be proved as against such person

Section 27: How much of information received from accused may be proved –

Provided that, when any fact is deposed to as discovered inconsequence 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 thereby discovered, may be proved. 

Section 28: Confession made after removal of impression caused by inducement, threat or promise, relevant –

If such a confession as is referred to in section 24 is made after the impression caused by any such inducement, threat or promise has, in the opinion of the Court, been fully removed, it is relevant. 

Section 29: Confession otherwise relevant not to become irrelevant because of promise of secrecy, etc–

If such a confession is otherwise relevant, it does not become irrelevant merely because it was made under a promise of secrecy, or in consequence of a deception practiced on the accused person for the purpose of obtaining it, or when he was drunk, or because it was made in answer to questions which he need not have answered, whatever may have been the form of those questions, or because he was not warned that he was not bound to make such confession, and that evidence of it might be given against him. 

Section 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 who makes such confession.

Section 31: Admissions not conclusive proof, but may estop –

Admissions are not conclusive proof of the matters admitted but they may operate as estoppels under the provisions hereinafter contained.

IMPORTANT CASE LAWS

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