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RAJ KUMAR}{\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 }{\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 s/o Hari Chord \par }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 Appellants \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par }\pard \qc \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 v}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 . \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par }\pard \qc \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 REGINAM \par }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 Respondent \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par }\pard \qc \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 JUDGMEN}{\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 T \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par On 25th July 1977 the appellants were convicted}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 by the Magistrates Court Suva o}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 f Common Assault contrary to section 276 of the Penal Code and each sentenced to imprisonment for six months. \par \par They appeal against their convictions and sentences on various grounds of which the main one alleges as follows: \par \par }\pard \ql \li720\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 "That the learned trial Magistrate erred in Law in perusing the Suva Criminal File No. 303 of 1973 when deliberating or considering the case Navua Criminal Case No. 162 of 1977 against each of the Appellants. That though the Court declared that it used that file for a limited purpose as a Judicial Record it is inherently wrong in law to consi}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 der any evidence in a judicial p}{ \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 roceeding which is not on oath before the trial Court itself. That the remarks made by a nother trial Magistrate in that case No. 303 of 1975 in which both the Appellants had given evidence were prejudicial to each of the Appellants}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 '}{ \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 credit as that Court had disbelieved both of them." \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par The reason for this ground arose in this way. One Ahmed Khan, first Prosecution witness in this trial, had been charged with a criminal offence wherein the two appellants, both police officers, gave evidence for the prosecution. \par \par Out of the same facts rela ting to the same incident arose the second trial wherein the two appellants were charged with causing grievous harm to Ahmed Khan. They were convicted of the lesser offence of common assault. The Magistrate who had tried the charge against Ahmed Khan, qui te properly disqualified himself from trying the charge against the two appellants}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 .}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 The trial was then transferred to another Magistrate. \par \par Learned Crown Counsel had obtained a certified copy of tie record of the first trial which he used freely for the purpo se of cross-examining the two appellants and other witnesses. As he did not require the production of the record to prove anything he did not seek to produce it as an exhibit. Learned Defence Counsel did not seek to have it put in evidence either. In the record of the present trail, the record of the earlier trial has, for some reason}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 ,}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 been m}{ \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 arked for identification (M.F.1}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 2). Learned Counsel for the Crown who appeared for the prosecution at the trial, and who also appeared at the hearing of this appeal, sta ted that he himself did not ask the record to be marked for identification as he was using it for the purpose of cross-examination only. He retained the copy of the record. It did not go in as an exhibit, as neither party wanted it in. \par \par The following, however, appears in the learned Magistrate's judgement: \par \par }\pard \ql \li720\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 "(It must be stated that the court is now awar}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 e }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 from a perusal of the judicial record in Navua Case No. 303/75 (where in the witness P.W.1 was charged) that the present prosecution arose from a direct r eference of the matter by the trial magistrate to the Director of Public Prosecution rather than as a result of a complaint laid by P.W.1 direct to the police)." \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par }\pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\insrsid2490409 It is clear that, after he had completed the hearing, the learned Magistrate was troubled by something to which he could find no answer in the evidence before him. He, therefore, decided to peruse the record of the earlier case in wheel the complainant in this case had been the accused. He himself obtained it from somewhere, perhaps the Magistrat e s' Court records office. What was in that record is not known to this Court. It is enough to say that the learned Magistrate who had heard the earlier case had considered it improper, for the purpose of a fair trial, that he should try this case. The part i es, of course, did, as they were entitled to, make limited use of the record of the earlier trial at the hearing of this case but that was made in the presence of the accused and the evidence adduced as a result of such use became part of the evidence in t his case. Beyond that neither party wished to make use of the evidence given in the earlier case. Learned Counsel for the Crown concedes that under the circumstances, in a Supreme Court trial, it would have been an irregularity for the whole record of the earlier trial to have fallen into the hands of the assessors. \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 \fs20\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par What then is the, effect of the learned Magistrate's action in perusing the evidence which was not taken before him in the presence of the accused and counsel during the hearing of the present case? \par \par As Lord Denning M.R. said in }{\fs24\ul\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 Gould v. Evans & C}{\fs24\ul\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 o}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 . (1951 2 T.L.R.}{ \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 1189 at 1191): \par \par }\pard \ql \li720\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 "It is a fundamental principle of our law that a judge must act on the evidence before him and not on outside informat}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 ion: add farther, the evidence o}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 n which he acts must be gives in the presence of both parties or, at any }{ \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 rate, each party must be given }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 the opportunity of being present." \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par }\pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\insrsid2490409 Fiji Court of Appeal ass also expressed disapproval of a judge, or a magistrate, embarking upon an investigation of his own outside the evidence adduced before him in the presence of the parties (}{\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 see }{\ul\insrsid2490409 Athla Prasad v. Vidya Wati}{\insrsid2490409 No.}{\insrsid2490409 }{\insrsid2490409 35 of 1974). \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 \fs20\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 \par This principle will apply with much greater force in the circumstances of the p resent case where the policemen who had been prosecution witnesses in the earlier trial were now facing criminal emerged arising out of the same facts. It was in my view essential that the Magistrate trying this case, should have confined himself to the e vidence that the parties chose to place before him and refrained from perusing other facts presented, and inferences drawn, in the earlier case. (See also }{\fs24\ul\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 Ex parte Scheffield: re Austin Ex parte Green}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 70 Weekly Notes 112.) \par \par I have, therefore, come to the conclusion that the learned Magistrate's action in perusing the record of the earlier case between the hearing and the judgement was a serious irregularity. \par \par What order should this Court t}{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 hen make in such a case? Where }{\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 there is substantial clear evidence, a n appellate Court would generally order a now trial. In this case the desirability of such an order seems doubtful. The two appellants were charged with Act Intended to cause Grievous harm contrary to section 255(a) and, alternatively, causing Grievous Ha r m contrary to section 258 of the Penal Code. Learned Magistrate, found that, on the evidence, neither of the two charges could be sustained. He, therefore, found them guilty of the minor offence of Common Assault contrary to section 276 of the Penal Code. \par \par Two proceedings have already taken place arising out of the same incident. Furthermore, before the appellants were granted bail pending appeal they had already served some part of their prison sentences. \par \par In my view, therefore, without going into the, mer its of the other seven grounds, of appeal, some of which deal with the inadequacy of the evidence, the proper order for this Court to make would be merely to quash the conviction and set aside the sentence. \par \par It is so ordered in case of each appellant. \par \par }\pard \qc \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 G}{\b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 .}{ \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409\charrsid2490409 Mishra \par JUDGE \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0\pararsid2490409 {\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid0\langnp2057\insrsid2490409 Suva, \par 14th October 1977 \par }}