SC acquits TADA accused: Co-accused confessions inadmissible without joint trial; defective Section 15 confession rejected

Case Name: Raja @ Ayyappan v. State of Tamil Nadu

Citation: Criminal Appeal No. 1120 of 2010

Date of Judgment: 1 April 2020

Bench: Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta

Held The Supreme Court set aside the conviction under TADA, ruling that (i) a confession recorded under Section 15 TADA is admissible only if the mandatory safeguards are observed and the statement is shown to be voluntary; mere formal certificates or footnotes do not prove voluntariness; and (ii) confessions of co-accused are inadmissible against an accused unless there is a joint trial subsequent separate trials cannot rely on those statements.

Summary: The Designated Court convicted the appellant for a 1990 conspiracy to bomb a government building, resting primarily on his police-recorded confession and confessions of two co-accused. On appeal, the Court held that the recording officer had not demonstrably administered the statutory warnings or created a contemporaneous record evidencing a free, fear-free atmosphere, rendering the appellant’s confession unreliable. It further held that co-accused confessions (though recorded under Section 15) cannot be used against an accused tried separately; Section 15 (post-1993) permits use against co-accused only where they are “charged and tried in the same case together.”

Decision: Appeal allowed. The Designated Court’s judgment was set aside and the appellant was acquitted; existing bail bonds were cancelled, with no further orders for release being required.