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TMI Blog1971 (8) TMI 233X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng position. A quarrel ensued between the deceased and the appellant when the deceased warned the appellant against his coming to his house. The appellant retorted that instead of quarrelling with him the deceased should control his wife. To prevent the appellant visiting his residence the appellant and his wife went to reside in a portion of a Chatram belonging to his master. Enraged by this change of residence by the deceased, the appellant demanded, through one Govindaraja (P.W. 2), that the deceased should return to him the presents given by him to his wife. He repeated this demand about two days prior to the date of the occurrence through Subharayan (P.W. 5). On July 7, 1969, the appellant visited the house of the deceased, but P.W. 1 scolded him, whereupon the appellant told her that she was talking to him in that vain because of her husband and that if he were to do away with her husband she would not be able to withstand him. 3. On July 10, 1969, Meenakshi went to another village to see the deceased's brother who was ailing. The appellant saw her and her children going. At about 9.30 that night he was in the tea shop of P.W. 3 when he enquired if the deceased had return ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tor (P.W. 8) that it was the deceased who had caused the injury on his toe on the fatal night was inadmissible under Section 26 of the Evidence Act, 1872 as it was made whilst the appellant was in the custody of the police. 7. On the first point, counsel took us to the evidence of several witnesses including the medical evidence and tried to show that the injuries on the deceased could not have been caused by a weapon like the aruval, M.O. 1, discovered by the appellant. In our view, counsel was not able to point out any misconstruction of evidence either by the Sessions Court or by the High Court. Equally unsuccessful was his attempt to show that the injuries on the deceased were not capable of being caused by a weapon such as the aruval, M.O. 1. The evidence was clear and unambiguous and we find no reason why it could not be accepted by the Sessions Court or the High Court. The discovery of the towel belonging to the appellant near the dead body of Natesa the next morning and his statement to the Doctor that it was the deceased who had caused the injury on his toe were sufficient to clinch his presence in the deceased's house at about mid-night on July 10, 1969, a circumstanc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of being admission of guilt. The question as to the meaning of 'confession' was ultimately settled in 1939 by the Privy Council in Pakala Narayana Swami v. The King Emperor 66 I.A. 66 Lord Atkin laid down that no statement containing self-exculpatory matter could amount to confession if the exculpatory statement was of some fact which if true would negative the offence alleged to be confessed. He observed: Moreover, a confession must either admit in terms the offence, or at any rate substantially all the facts which constitute the office. An admission of a gravely incriminating fact, even a conclusively incriminating fact, is not of itself a confession, e.g., an admission that the accused is the owner of and was in recent possession of the knife or revolver which caused death with no explanation of any other man's possession. Some confusion appears to have been caused by the definition of confession in Article 22 of Stephen's Digest of the Law of Evidence which defines a confession as an admission made at any time by a person changed with crime stating or suggesting the inference that he committed that crime. If the surrounding articles are examined, it will be app ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Agricultural Engineer, Aligarh were relied upon as confessions of bribery having been given by him to public servants and upon which the High Court had based his conviction. This Court set aside the conviction holding that neither of the two documents amounted to a plenary acknowledgement of the offence, that the statements were capable of being construed as complaints by him of having been cheated by the public servants named therein and that at best they might arouse suspicion that he had bribed them. In this conclusion, the Court approvingly cited Pakala Naravana Swami's case 66 I.A.66 and relied on the meaning of the word 'confession' given therein by Lord Atkin. In Faddi v. Madhya Pradesh 1964CriLJ744 , the appellant filed a first information report on the basis of which the dead body of his step son was recovered and three persons were arrested. As a result of the investigation, however, the appellant was arrested. and was sent up for trial which resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death. In an appeal before this Court, he contended that the first information report ought not to have been admitted by reason of Section 25 of the Evidence Act and Section 16 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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