EMPEROR Vs. RAS BEHARI LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by special leave. The appellants were tried by the Sessions Judge of Patna, sitting with a jury of seven. They were found guilty by a majority verdict of six to one on charges of murder and rioting. Appellants Nos. 1-7 were sentenced to death and No. 8 to transportation for life. They appealed to the High Court, but their appeal was dismissed, The sentences on appellants Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 were subsequently commuted by the Local Government to transportation for life.

(2.) On their application for leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council it was asserted that one of the seven jurors did not understand English, the language in which some of the evidence appears to have been given, and in which the addresses of counsel were made and the charge of the Sessions Judge was delivered. This contention had been put forward on their behalf in their appeal to the High Court. It was originally supported by an affidavit upon which the learned Judges of that Court properly refused to rely. A second affidavit to the same effect of a more reliable character was tendered on the last day of the hearing, but was rejected as too late, and the appeal was (as already stated) dismissed.

(3.) Under these circumstances an enquiry was by order of His Majesty in Council directed to be held by the High Court as to the truth of the allegations so made. The High Court reported that the juror in question did not know sufficient English to follow the address of the lawyers and the Judge's charge or the English evidence. It was after consideration of this report and upon this ground that special leave to appeal was granted.