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Qanun-e-Shahadat Articles 37–40 — Confessions and Discovery
Read verified Qanun-e-Shahadat Articles 37–40 on involuntary confessions, police confessions, custody, discovery, and evidentiary effect.
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.
Article 37 — Inducement, threat, or promise
37. Confession caused by inducement, threat or promise, when irrelevant in criminal proceeding.— A confession made by an accused person is irrelevant in a criminal proceeding, if the making of the confession appears to the Court to have been caused by any inducement, threat or promise having reference to the charge against the accused person, proceeding from a person in authority and sufficient, in the opinion of the Court, to give the accused person grounds which would appear to him reasonable for supposing that by making it he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him.
Article 38 — Confession to police
38. 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.
Article 39 — Confession in police custody
39. Confession by accused while in custody of police not to be proved against him.— Subject to Article 40, no confession made by any person whilst he is in the custody of a police-officer, unless it be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, shall be proved as against such person. Explanation.— In this Article, “Magistrate” does not include the head of a village discharging magisterial functions unless such headman is a Magistrate exercising the powers of a Magistrate under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898).
Article 40 — Discovery information
40. How much of information received from accused may be proved.— 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 thereby discovered, may be proved.
Original analysis
Plain-language explanation
Articles 37–40 form a connected safeguard. Article 37 excludes a confession induced by a qualifying threat, promise, or inducement. Article 38 bars proof of a confession made to police. Article 39 bars a confession made in police custody unless made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate.
Article 40 is a limited discovery rule, not a general permission to prove a police confession. Only the portion of information that distinctly relates to the fact actually discovered is potentially provable.
Legal test
Essential ingredients
- For Article 37, a confession and a causative inducement, threat, or promise from a person in authority concerning the charge
- For Articles 38 and 39, proof that the statement is a confession and was made to police or while in police custody
- For Article 40, custody, information from the accused, consequential discovery of a fact, and a distinct connection between the proved words and that discovery
Consequence
Legal effect
The provisions exclude unreliable or police-obtained confessions while preserving only the narrowly defined discovery-related portion permitted by Article 40.
Proof and process
Burden or procedural requirement
- The prosecution relying on a confession or discovery must establish its admissibility and the factual foundation for the applicable Article.
- The court must separate the precise discovery-related words from inadmissible narrative or confessional material.
- Voluntariness, custody, the role of police, the discovery memo, recovery evidence, and independent corroboration should be assessed from the record.
Limits
Important exceptions and qualifications
- Article 39 permits a custody confession made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, subject to the other law governing voluntariness and recording.
- Article 40 admits only the part distinctly related to the discovered fact; it does not make the whole statement admissible.
- Articles 41–43 address later confessions, secrecy or deception, and joint-trial confessions and must be consulted where relevant.
Primary source
Verify the complete statute
Last verified: 2026-07-13
Source status: The Pakistan Code portal carries a general review notice; verify later Gazette amendments.
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