FAKIR Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by special leave from a judgment and order of the Court of the Resident at Hyderabad, dated 17 January 1936, which affirmed the convictions and sentences passed upon the appellants by the Additional Sessions Judge of Secunderabad by his judgment dated 28 November 1935. The appellants and another were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge, sitting without jury or aid of assessors. The learned Judge convicted the appellant Fakira of offences punishable under Ss. 148 and 302, I. P. C. and sentenced him to two years' rigorous imprisonment under S. 148 and to death under S. 302. The appellant Shankar was convicted under S. 148, and was sentenced to two and a half years' rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 200 and in default to suffer four months' rigorous imprisonment. The appellant Kunnay Lingayya was convicted under S.147, and was sentenced to 18 months' rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 200 and in default to suffer four month rigorous imprisonment. The appellant Narahari was convicted under S.148, and was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 100 and in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for two months. Prom these convictions the appellants appealed to the Court of the. Resident at Hyderabad and the case was also referred by the Additional Sessions Judge under S. 374, Criminal P.C., for confirmation, of the death sentence passed on Fakira. The appeal was heard by the Additional Judge of the Court of the Resident, who on 17 January 1936, dismissed the appeals and affirmed the sentences, and passed a separate order affirming the sentence of death on the appellant Fakira.

(2.) On 1 February 1936, on an appeal for mercy by the appellant Pakira, the Resident at Hyderabad, under S. 401, Criminal P.C., commuted the sentence of death to one of 10 years' rigorous imprisonment, Three contentions were submitted by counsel for the appellants, one of which applied only to the case of the appellant Fakira. The occurrence which gave rise to the precautions out of which this appeal arises took place in Secunderabad within the Administered Areas in the Hyderabad State. By Notification No. 260-1, dated 24th April 1929, in exercise of powers conferred by the Indian (Foreign Jurisdiction) order in Council, 1902, the Governor. General applied inter alia the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal P. C. to these Administered Areas, with certain modifications, which included a provision that references to the Local Government should be read as referring to the Resident; at Hyderabad, and references to the High Court should be read as referring to the Court of the Resident at Hyderabad. Further, S. 268, Criminal P. C., which provides that all trials before a Court of Session shall be either by jury or with the aid of assessors, was applied subject to the modification that "trials before a Court of Session may, in the discretion of the Sessions Judge, be without jury or aid of assessors". The Court of the Resident at Hyderabad consists of the Resident and an Additional Judge. The Cantonment of Secunderabad is a Sessions Division, the Court of Session consisting of a Sessions Judge and an Additional Sessions Judge.

(3.) In the first place, the appellants maintain that the discretionary power of dispensing with a jury and aid of assessors is conferred only upon the Sessions Judge and not upon an Additional Sessions Judge, and sought to support the contention by reference to a number of sections of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Resident has the power under S. 9 (3) to appoint Additional Sessions Judges and Assistant Sessions Judges to exercise jurisdiction in one or more Courts of Session. This clearly means the exercise of jurisdiction as a Sessions Judge, and the later provisions as to the arrangement of business and as to the cases to be tried by them [Ss. 17 (3) and (4), and 31 (2)] do not affect their jurisdiction as a Sessions Judge in any case allotted or made over to them. S. 31 (3) does contain an express limitation of the power of an Assistant Sessions Judge in the matter of sentences. The provisions as to appeal in Ss. 408, 409 and 410 do not affect the question of jurisdiction at the trial, and S. 438 as to powers in cases of reference or revision of decisions of a lower Court is equally irrelevant. Their Lordships are of opinion that the Additional Sessions Judge was entitled to exercise his discretion under S. 268, Criminal P. C. In the second place, the appellants submitted that the Additional Judge of the Court of the Resident, on the appeal, had erred in founding his conclusions on the view that the evidence of an eye-witness, Vasanta Rao, was corroborated in certain particulars by the evidence of a witness, Srinivasa Rao, and that this error vitiated his judgment. During the night of 24 August 1935, a Hindu- Muhammadan not took place at Secunderabad, during which a Muhammedan, Muhammad Ismail, was killed. The case for the prosecution was that when the deceased was proceeding on his bicycle towards his home on that evening and was passing the house of the appellant Kunnay Lingayya he was attacked by the appellant Shankar with a lathi, whereupon he fell off his bicycle and getting up ran towards the east, whereupon he was surrounded by about 15 persons, including the appellants and struck twice on the head by the appellant Fakira with a lathi. The result was that he fell back unconscious and never regained consciousness, but died about 12 hours after the attack. The witness Vasanta gave evidence which, if believed, justified the conviction of all the appellants. His credibility was attacked and was discussed by the trial Judge, who, nevertheless, accepted his story as true in essential particulars. The trial Judge also took into account the evidence of the witness Srinivasa ; the learned Judge says : The principal feature of the evidence of Stini-vasa in this Court is that whereas he has to a considerable extent given the same evidence as its the committing Magistrate's Court until the stage when accused 2 (Shankar) struck the Muhammadan coming on the cycle, he has declined to depose that accused 2 struck the Muhammadan with a lathi on his back, as a result of which the Muhammadan fell off the cycle, whereupon the Muhammadan left his cycle and ran in the direction from which he had come and the Hindus ran after him and surrounded him and that while accused 2 stood where he was and struck the cycle with a lathi he saw the Muhammadan surrounded near the toddy shop and being beaten after which he was frightened and went away ; and on the other hand he has deposed as follows : 'A Muhammadan boy was coming on a cycle. The 60 persons that were there all of them surrounded him. I got afraid and I went away. I do not know any thing more ; it was dark and as there were about 50 people I was not able to make out any. The principal result of his evidence is that he does jot implicate accused 2 at all which he had previously done and that he does not say that the Muhammadan was beaten after being surrounded.