Any magistrate whether metropolitan or judicial, if he has jurisdiction or not in the case, is empowered under Section 164 to record any statement or confession made to him in the course of the investigation. But a police officer on whom powers of a magistrate have been conferred for the time being is not empowered to record the same. The magistrate, before recording the statement is required to explain it to the person giving the statement that he is not bound to give it and the statements can be used as evidence against him. The magistrate has to make sure that the person making the confession is doing it voluntarily. The Magistrate cannot authorize the detention of that person in police custody if the person refuses to give a statement at any time before the confession is recorded.
The section talks about conferring of Magistrate's power on a Police officer. Where is the provision for that? Under what kind of circumstances can that happen?
