TMI Blog1957 (10) TMI 44X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. The learned Additional Sessions Judge accepted the verdict of the jury and acquitted the accused. On appeal by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the High Court in a judgment covering about 130 typed pages set aside the order of acquittal and convicted the appellant under the sections aforesaid, and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for four years and a fine of ten thousand rupees, in default of payment, further rigorous imprisonment for one year, under s. 408, Indian Penal Code, and to rigorous imprisonment for four years under s. 477A, Indian Penal Code, the sentences of imprisonment under the two sections to run consecutively. Out of the fine, if realized, seven thousand rupees was directed to b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gh Court to reject it in limine. The point arises in this way : Apart from the prayer, the only ground taken in the petition of appeal is that the order of acquittal is against the weight of evidence on the record and contrary to law. The argument is that under s. 418 of the Criminal Procedure Code, where a trial is by jury, the appeal shall lie on a matter of law only , and as no particular error of law is set out in the memorandum of appeal, the consequence of this serious omission, it is further contended, is that in the eye of law, this was no petition of appeal at all, which could have been entertained by the High Court. This contention was raised before the High Court by way of a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... specific grounds. A memorandum of appeal with a bald ground like the one quoted above is of no help to any of the parties or to the Court. It may have the merit of relieving the person responsible for drawing up the ground of appeal, of applying his mind to the judgment under appeal and its weak points, but this slight advantage, if it is so, is very much out-weighed by the serious disadvantage to the parties to the litigation and the Court which is to hear the appeal. Such a bald statement of the grounds leaves the door wide open for all kinds of submissions, thus, tending to waste the time of the Court, and taking the respondents by surprise. It is a notorious fact that courts, particularly in the part of the country from where this appea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is evidence on 12 days between October and December, 1949. It runs into about 45 typed pages. This evidence appears to have been given by him in English because he put in an application that he had given the evidence in English and that he was not in a position to say whether the Hindi version as recorded by the deposition-writer was the correct version, as he was not familiar with Hindi. The High Court had made the following observations as to the nature of the case and the requisite qualifications of the members of the jury necessary for a proper understanding of the case : We consider that the instant case was not fit to be tried by a jury at least by any ordinary jury. It was a very complicated case in which a mass of documents was ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent knowledge of English; he could understand a letter written in English with some difficulty and could not read English newspapers. This is what we find from a report made by the learned Sessions Judge after summoning the jurors and examining them on a letter issued by us. We are satisfied that the two jurors, Shri Sheik Ashique Ali and Shri Farman Ali, were not in a position to decide the question of authorship of the forged documents satisfactorily. It was not merely a question of understanding the contents of the documents produced in the case; the jurors also had to decide whether they were written or signed by the respondent as deposed by the prosecution witnesses or not. They did not possess sufficient acquaintance with English to d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... think that the effect of the incompetence of a juror is to deny to the accused an essential part of the protection accorded to him by law and that the result of the trial in the present case was a clear miscarriage of justice. They have no doubt that in these circumstances the conviction and sentence should not be allowed to stand. 8. In our opinion, the legal position in the instant case is the same. It was, however, argued on behalf of the State Government that in the instant case, the jury had returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty, and that, therefore, there was no prejudice to the accused persons. It is true that the incompetence of the jury empanelled in this case was raised by the counsel for the State Government in the Hig ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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