Evidence Act · Chapter II · Of the relevancy of facts

Evidence Act section 25 in the BSA

Evidence Act 25BSA 23(1)

Evidence Act section 25, “Confession to police-officer not to be proved”, is now BSA section 23(1) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From Evidence Act 25 to BSA 23

The words are the same as in the Evidence Act, apart from “Adhiniyam” for the Act’s own name and the new numbers of the sections it refers to. It now sits in BSA 23 with Evidence Act 26, 27.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Evidence Act, 1872

Section 25 Confession to police-officer not to be proved

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

Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023

Section 23 Confession to police officer

The part that carries Evidence Act 25 is marked.

(1) No confession made to a police officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence.

(2) No confession made by any person while he is in the custody of a police officer, unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate shall be proved against him:

Provided that when any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequence 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 discovered, may be proved.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Also in BSA 23

Other Evidence Act sections that went to the same place

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BSA repealed the Indian Evidence Act from 1 July 2024 (section 170(1)). Any application, trial, inquiry, investigation, proceeding or appeal pending immediately before that date is dealt with under the Evidence Act as it then stood, as if the BSA had not come into force (section 170(2)).