Extra judicial confession refer to the ones where the accused makes a confession to any authority other than the Judges or magistrates. This includes the confessions made to the police men too. These confessions are not so reliable in nature. Only if the confession is proved to be voluntary, then it has the same effect of any other confession made by the accused. Landmark judgments on the extra judicial confessions have mentioned that extra judicial confession as a weak piece of evidence. This paper tries to analyze the concept of extra judicial confessions in general and the reasons behind the weak consideration of the same. Also the credibility test that is imposed on this confession is critically evaluated. The reasons behind the poor consideration of the extra judicial confessions as a sufficient tool of evidence is the first issue that has been dealt I this paper. Secondly, the ambit of this extra judicial confession is broader than the judicial confession under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedural Code but the credibility test imposed on the same is failed in most cases. It is the rare of the rarest circumstances when these confessions are considered to be a valid piece of evidence to proceed the case. This issue is being deeply analyzed in this paper. Thirdly the decisions of the court in appreciating these confessions is critically analyzed since there is a huge growth and positive approach by the courts towards these confessions recently.

Keywords: Confessions, Credibility and voluntariness.

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