Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
| DOI | 10.1177/002201833700100107 |
| Published date | 01 January 1937 |
| Date | 01 January 1937 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Judicial
Committee
of
the
Privy
Council
CONVICTION OF MURDER
IN
FIJI
QUASHED
Mahadeo v. The King
THIS
was an Appeal from the conviction of the appellant
for murder in a case tried by the Chief Justice of
Fiji with assessors.
The
Appeal was heard by the
Lord
Chancellor,
Lord
Russell of Killowen, Sir Lancelot Sanderson,
Sir George Lowndes, and Sir Sidney Rowlatt.
It
appeared that
a boy named Ramautar had been strangled by pressure of the
hand on the throat by the appellant and as a result the appellant
was charged with murder.
In
addition to there being a charge
against the appellant there was a charge against his step-
father, one Mathura, for being an accessory after the fact.
On
the trial the boy and his stepfather were separately represented
by counsel.
There
was only one witness of what had taken
place and that was a boy named Sukraj, and there was no
corroboration of his account of what had taken place.
The
Appeal was allowed on several grounds and they are all set
out in a report of the judgment which appears below.
Afurther interest in this case is the fact that the appellant
was appealing in forma pauperis, he being a young person,
according to the Fiji Ordinance, of 16 years and having no
means of his own.
It
will be seen, therefore, he was one of
the poorest of His Majesty's subjects and was resident in the
far off Fiji Islands with apparently no one to help him, and yet
by the aid of the State he was able to bring his case before the
Supreme Tribunal for the Colonies and have it reheard.
It
is a wonderful thing that our system of the administration of
justice enables this to be done and it is something of which
we may well be proud.
The
report of the judgment setting
9S
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