Law: Penal Code (XLV of 1860)

Section: 302, 340

Penal Code (XLV of 1860), -S.302 read with Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898), S. 340 and Legal Remembrancer's Manual (New), 1960,. Chap. XII, paras. 1-7-Sessions trial-[Murder case] Pauper defence-Trial of pauper accused charged for murder commencing immediately upon appointment by Sessions Judge of an , Advocate-Such Advocate having no opportunity to prepare case for defence as envisiged in para. 6 of Chap. XII, Legal Remembrancer's Manual (New), 1960 Accused, held, merely "represented and not "defended" and so not given right to be defended properly as contemplated by S. 340, Cr. P. C.-Trial, held, not according to law-Fresh trial ordered. The provisions of Legal Remembrancer's Manual, 1960, were made in aid of section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which confers a right on every accused person brought before a criminal Court to be "defended" by a lawyer, which is not the same thing as being "represented" by a lawyer. That right evidently extends to access to the lawyer for private consultations and also affording the latter an adequate opportunity of preparing the case for the defence. A last moment appointment of an Advocate for defending a prisoner accused of capital offence, not only results in a breach of the provision of the 6th paragraph of Chapter XII of the Legal Remembrancer's Manual, 1960 and frustrates the object behind the elaborate provisions of that Chapter, such an appointment results also in a denial to the prisoner of the right conferred on him by section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. Dates of hearing: 14th and 15th January 1970.   JUDGMENT A. M. SAYEM, J.-The prisoner has been convicted and sentenced to death by the Additional Sessions Judge of Khulna under section 302, P. P. C. Hence the reference for confirma tion of the sentence by the learned Additional Sessions Judge under section 374, Cr. P. C. and the appeal by the prisoner for warded by the Jailer under section 420, Cr. P. C. As before us, the prisoner was defended at the trial at the expense of the State. In view of the order we propose to pass it is not necessary to discuss the facts in detail. Suffice…