Explained provision · CrPC
Section 164 CrPC — Recording Statements and Confessions
Read Section 164 CrPC with verified text and a clear explanation of magisterial statements, voluntary confessions, procedure and evidentiary safeguards.
Original legal text
Verified statutory wording
The text below is reproduced separately from Shahbaz Shah's explanation. Paragraph spacing is normalised and amendment brackets and footnote markers are omitted for readability; the statutory wording is not paraphrased.
Section 164
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-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 statements 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 reason 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.
Original analysis
Plain-language explanation
Section 164 permits a qualified Magistrate who is not a police officer to record an investigation-stage statement or confession before the inquiry or trial begins.
A confession receives special safeguards because it may be used against its maker: the Magistrate must give the statutory warning, question the maker, independently satisfy himself or herself that the confession is voluntary, record and sign it in the prescribed manner, and append the statutory memorandum.
Legal test
Essential ingredients
- Recording by a legally competent Magistrate who is not a police officer
- Statement or confession made during investigation or before commencement of inquiry or trial
- Prescribed manner of recording and forwarding to the court dealing with the case
- For a confession, express warning and a genuine judicial inquiry into voluntariness
- For subsection (1-A), presence of the accused and opportunity to cross-examine where that procedure is used
Consequence
Legal effect
A properly recorded statement becomes part of the case record; a confession may be used against its maker subject to voluntariness, evidentiary law, and compliance with the statutory safeguards.
Proof and process
Burden or procedural requirement
- The Magistrate must act independently of the investigating police and create a record showing compliance, not merely obtain a signature.
- The prosecution relying on a confession must establish voluntariness and legal admissibility.
- A prior witness statement does not automatically replace testimony at trial; its use depends on the Code and the Qanun-e-Shahadat.
Limits
Important exceptions and qualifications
- The recording Magistrate need not otherwise have territorial or trial jurisdiction in the case.
- A statement and a confession are legally distinct; the special confession safeguards cannot be diluted by relabelling.
- Non-compliance is assessed with section 533 CrPC and the evidence law; consequences depend on the defect and surrounding record.
Primary source
Verify the complete statute
Last verified: 2026-07-13
Source status: Pakistan Code marks the publication “Under Review”; provincial and later Gazette amendments must be checked.
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