Legal Provisions of Section 229 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C.), India.
Conviction on plea of guilty:
A plea of guilt is no less than a confession. If the accused wants to plead guilty he should do so personally by his own mouth and not through his counsel or pleader. But where the personal attendance of the accused is dispensed with, he may plead guilty through his pleader.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The Court must scrutinize closely the plea of guilty made by the accused and it must be fully and fairly recorded. Where the plea of guilt was not fairly and adequately recorded, the conviction based on such plea was set aside and the case remanded back for retrial.
The Court has got wide discretion to accept the plea of guilt and convict the accused on the basis of such plea. But this discretion has got to be used with great care and caution. It has been generally observed that the Courts are invariably reluctant to convict the accused on his pleading guilty in cases of murder, for the reason that the evidence subsequently may disclose that the facts proved do not constitute an offence of murder, but some lesser offence punishable with lesser sentence.
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It must be stated that where the accused pleads guilty under this section, his right to appeal is substantially curtailed by Section 375 of the Code. Therefore it is desirable that, his plea of guilt should be recorded in exact words uttered by him. The sentencing Judge must also give him a hearing on the question of punishment and then only pass sentence on him as per the provisions of law.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In a case, where the accused was charged with committing murder of his wife, he did not plead guilty at the time of framing of charge under Section 228, but subsequently confessed his crime in the open Court, which was recorded by the trial judge himself and he again reiterated his plea of guilty in his statement under Section 313, CrPC.
In appeal, it was held that applicability of the provision contained in Section 229 cannot be restricted to a particular date or occasion and it may be advanced by an accused at any stage of the trial after framing of the charge. Therefore, his conviction on the basis of plea of guilt subsequently made was not in contravention of the criminal law and procedure and hence the appeal against conviction was dismissed by the High Court.
Where the accused does not plead guilty under this section or he refuses to plead, then he can claim to be tried under Section 230 of the Code.