TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1936 (3) TMI 18
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.... Chancellor Viscount Hailsham, J. 1. This is a case which has given their Lordships considerable trouble. The prosecution was against accused 1 for performing an illegal operation, and against accused 2 for abetting him in that crime. At the trial the learned Judge gave a direction to the jury, to which exception has been taken by Mr. DeSilva in a very clear and helpful argument, and in which ....
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.... a fact specially within the knowledge of these two accused who were there. The burden of proving that fact, the law says, is upon him, namely that no criminal operation took place but what took place was this and this speculum examination." Their Lordships are of opinion that that direction does not correctly state the law. It is not the law of Ceylon that the burden is cast upon an accused pe....
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....ing irresistibly to the guilt of the accused quite independently of this direction. It has been repeatedly stated in a series of authorities that their Lordships do not sit as a Court of Criminal Appeal; that the mere fact that there has been some mistake of law does not afford sufficient ground of itself for granting special leave to appeal. Lord Sumner, in a well-known passage in the case in Ibr....
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....he actual decision was plainly within the authority of previous cases, because their Lordships held that sentences had been pronounced which were outside the power of the tribunal which purported to pronounce them. It may be that the precise language of the judgment may have to be considered on a more suitable occasion. It is sufficient to say that the judgment then pronounced did not purport to d....