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Accused signature not obligatory in confession statement: High Court

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI FEB. 6. It is not obligatory for an investigating officer to get the signature of an accused in the confession statement recorded under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, the Madras High Court has ruled.

Citing a Supreme Court judgment having far-reaching consequences, but went unreported in law journals, a Division Bench comprising Justice M. Karpagavinayagam and Justice A.K. Rajan said the failure to obtain the accused signature in confession statement would not make it invalid in the eye of law.

Dismissing the appeal of a murder accused, who was convicted and sentenced to life by the II Additional Sessions Judge of Pondicherry, they said: ``If any fact is discovered in a search made on the strength of any information from the accused, such a discovery is a guarantee that the information supplied by the accused is true''. The basic idea embedded in Section 27 of the Evidence Act is the doctrine of confirmation by subsequent events.

The case on hand pertained to the murder of a 70-year-old lady, Fortune Amalore alias Soundariammal, by Natarajan on September 30, 1996 for her jewels. The accused was arrested a week later and following his confession the weapon of offence, jewels and the bloodstained clothes were recovered from various places.

The defence counsel contended that since the signature of the accused was not obtained in the confession, it was not valid. Even the admissible portion of confession did not show that specific details of the places from where the articles were recovered.

But the Additional Public Prosecutor for Pondicherry, A. P. Suryaprakasam, submitted that the pieces of circumstantial evidence placed before the trial court were sufficient.

The judges pointed out that the Supreme Court had suo motu reviewed its own order in April 1996 and held as `erroneous' its earlier order stipulating that a confession without the signature of an accused would lose its authenticity.

Citing judgments of apex court and other High Courts, they said the rulings never indicated that the confession should give full details such as addresses of the places from where the objects were to be recovered.

``The only requirement contemplated under Section 27 of the Act is that the discovery of the fact, in pursuance of the information given by the accused, would embrace the place from where the objects are recovered are to be recovered''.

In the instant but for the information given by the accused the police could not have reached the places and recovered the objects, the judges said.

They also rejected the defence argument that fingerprints were obtained from the accused under compulsion.

Dismissing the appeal and confirming the conviction and sentence imposed on Natarajan, the judges directed the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Home Secretaries to circulate a copy of the apex court judgment to all prosecutors in the States.

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