JUDGMENT

K.ramaswamy, J.-This appeal by special leave has come up before this Bench, pursuant to a reference order dated November 9, 1994 passed by a two-Judge Bench, to consider whether the confessional statement of the appellant given to the Customs officers under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 (for short, the Act ), though re tracted at a later stage, is admissible inevidence and cold form basis for conviction and whether retracted confessional statement requires corroboration on material particulars from independent evidence? In support of the reference, the learned Judges have cited Kashmira Singh v. The State of Madhya Pradesh1, and Chandrakant Chimanlal Desai v. State of Gujarat2.

2. The fats in this case are that at 8.00 a.m. on December 6, 1980, 200 gold biscuits of foreign marking were recovered from the compound of the appellant s house in his presence after digging got done by the Customs official, PW-2, T.K. Rajasekaran, superintendent of Customs, and PW-5, N. Gopalan Nambiar, Inspector and two panch witnesses, PW-3 and another. The same were kept concealed in a wooden box burried in the ground visible through the window of his bed - room. The appellant gave, in