Admission and Confession both play important role in evidence law. Any cae can be solved very easily if there is confession or admission, because when a person accepts something than there is no need to prove the fact, as it has been already accepted to be true.To a layman admission and confession may sound almost same, but there is difference, and that's what differentiates lawyers from others. Legal language is quite different, what i mean is it is something that everyone may not understand, or could not interpret what it actually means.
Admission
Section 17 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 defines the terms Admission. The section defines it as- An admission is a statement, oral or documentary which suggests any interference as to any fact in issue or relevant fact and which is made by any of the persons and under the circumstances herein after mentioned.Thus in simple words we can say that admission is such a statement by which any fact in issue or relevant fact may be inferred.
This can be illustrated with a simple example, Joe brings a suit for the recovery of the money against Pete. It is written in the account books of Pete that he has take loan from Joe. it is the admission of the liability against him. Thus after such admission the loan fact need not to be proved.
Citation
Chikhan Koashwala Versus Subbarao (AIR 1971 S.C. 1542)
Hon'ble Supreme Court held that, "Admission must be clear and specific. There must not be any chance of uncertainity."
The citation above can be clearly understood from the illustration, that if any person accepts only that he had signed the documents, but did not saw what it was acyually , than it cannot be said that he has accepted the document. (Citation Reference: Brijmohan Versus Amarnath AIR 1980 J & K 54)
Confession
Confession is of equal importance as admission and has been deined in Section 24 of the Act.
Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872, says that 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 under inducement, threat or 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 if he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him.This is not a literal definition. According to Stepehen, a famous law expert, confession is such an admission which is made by the accused person of an offence. (Source: Digest of Law of Evidence)
Citation
Palvinde Kaur Versus State of Punjab (AIR 1952 S.C.354)
Supreme Court of India gave the definition of confession as, "Confession by an accused is a statement that must admit in terms of the offence or at any rate substantially all facts that constitute the offence".
Thus we can finally conclude that admission and confession play key role in the law of evidence. And it can be concluded as well that every confession is basically an admission, but not the vice versa.
A Bio Informatician, MCSE, technology developer, Attorney & founder of GeekUpd8. He is currently practicing as an Attorney.
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