14. The statements contained in the confessions of the co-accused persons stand on a different footing. In cases where such confessions are relied upon by the prosecution against and accused person, the court cannot begin with the examination of the said statements. The stage to consider the said confessional statements arrives only after the other evidence is considered and found to be satisfactory. The difference in the approach which the court has to adopt in dealing with these two types of evidence is thus clear, well understood and well-established. It, however, appears that in Ram Prakash’s case, 1959 SCR 1219: (AIR 1959 SC 1) some observations have been made which do not seem to recognise the distinction between the evidence of an accomplice and the statements contained in the confession made by an accused person. “An examination of the reported decisions of the various High Courts in India,” said Imam, J., who spoke for the Court in that case, “indicates that the preponderance of opinion is in favour of the view that the retracted confession of an accused person may be taken into consideration against a co-accused by virtue of the provisions of Section 30 of the Act, its value was extremely weak and there could be no conviction without the fullest and strongest corroboration on material particulars”. The last portion of this observation has been interpreted by the High Court in the present case as supporting the view that like the evidence of an accomplice, a confessional statement of a co-accused person can be acted upon if it is corroborated in material particulars. In our opinion, the context in which the said observation was made by this Court shows that this Court did not intend to lay down any such proposition. In fact, the other evidence
