THE CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, 1898
(V OF 1898)
[22nd March, 1898]
An Act to consolidate and amend the law
relating to the Criminal Procedure
164. Power to record statements
and confessions. (1) Any Magistrate
of the First Class and any Magistrate of the Second Class specially empowered
in this behalf by the Provincial Government may, if he is not a police-officer,
record any statement or confession made to him in the course of an
investigation under this Chapter or at any time afterwards before the
commencement of the inquiry or trial.
[1][(1-A) Any such statement may be recorded by such
Magistrate in the presence of the accused, and the accused given an opportunity
of cross-examining the witness making the statement.]
(2) Such statement shall be recorded in such of the manners hereinafter
prescribed for recording evidence as is, in his opinion best fitted for the
circumstances of the case. Such confessions shall be recorded and signed in the
manner provided in Section 364, and such statements or confessions shall then
be forwarded to the Magistrate by whom the case is to be inquired into or
tried.
(3) A Magistrate shall, before recording any such confession, explain to the person making it that he is not bound to make a confession and that if he does so it may be used as evidence against him and no Magistrate shall record any such confession unless, upon questioning the person making it, he has reasons to believe that it was made voluntarily; and, when he records any confession, he shall make a memorandum at the foot of such record to the following effect:--
“I have explained
to (name) that he is not bound to make a confession and that, if he does so,
any confession he may make may be used as evidence against him and I believe
that this confession was voluntarily made. It was taken in my presence and
hearing, and was read over to the person making it and admitted by him to be
correct, and it contains a full and true account of the statement made by him.
(Signed) A.B.
Magistrate.”
Explanation. It is not necessary that the Magistrate receiving
and recording a confession or statement should be a Magistrate having
jurisdiction in the case.