Admission is a conscious and deliberate act and not something that could be inferred. An admission could be a positive act of acknowledgement or confession. To constitute an admission, one of the requirements is a voluntary acknowledgement through a statement of the existence of certain facts during the judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings, which conclude as true or valid the allegations made in the proceedings or in the notice
Sections 17 and 18 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (“the Act”) defines “admission” and “admission by party to proceeding or his agent”.
Section 17 of the Act reads thus: –
“17. Admission defined admission is a statement, oral or documentary, which suggests any inference as to any fact in issue or relevant fact, and which is made by any of the persons, and under the circumstances, hereinafter mentioned.”
Admission is a conscious and deliberate act and not something that could be inferred. An admission could be a positive act of acknowledgement or confession. To constitute an admission, one of the requirements is a voluntary acknowledgement through a statement of the existence of certain facts during the judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings, which conclude as true or valid the allegations made in the proceedings or in the notice. The formal act of acknowledgement during the proceedings waives or dispenses with the production of evidence by the contesting party. The admission concedes, for the purpose of litigation, the proposition of fact claimed by the opponents as true. An admission is also the best evidence the opposite party can rely upon, and though inconclusive, is decisive of the matter unless successfully withdrawn or proved erroneous by the other side.
Section 18 of the Act reads thus:-
“18. Admission by party to proceeding or his agent.––
Statements made by a party to the proceeding, or by an agent to any such party, whom the Court regards, under the circumstances of the case, as expressly or impliedly authorised by him to make them, are admissions.
by suitor in representative character.––Statements made by parties to suits suing or sued in a representative character, are not admissions, unless they were made while the party making them held that character.
Statements made by ––
(1) by party interested in subject-matter.––persons who have any proprietary or pecuniary interest in the subject-matter of the proceeding, and who make the statement in their character of persons so interested, or
(2) by person from whom interest derived.––persons from whom the parties to the suit have derived their interest in the subject matter of the suit, are admissions, if they are made during the continuance of the interest of the persons making the statements..”
Section 18 of the Act deals with:
(i) admission by a party to a proceeding,
(ii) his agent,
(iii) by a suitor in a representative character,
(iv) statements made by a party in trusted subject matter,
(v) statements made by a person from whom interest is derived.
The qualifying circumstances to merit as admission are subject to satisfying the requirements.
The Privy Council in Gopal Das and another v. Sri Thakurji and others AIR 1943 PC 83, held that a statement made by a person is not only evidence against the person but is also evidence against those who claim through him. Section 18 of the Act lays down the conditions and the requirements satisfied for applying to a statement as an admission.