Wakilii

Rex v Ali (Criminal Appeal No. 31 of 1944)

East African Court of Appeal · [1944] EACA 5 · 1944 Conviction Quashed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction for giving false information to a person employed in the public service
Decision
Accused conviction and sentence set aside; fine to be refunded if paid

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

An answer given by a person under arrest to a question put by a police constable does not constitute giving information to a person employed in the public service within the meaning of section 124 of the Penal Code. The court held that a person arrested on suspicion of having committed an offence cannot be considered as giving information to the arresting officer by answering questions put in connection with the offence.

Outcome

Accused conviction and sentence set aside; fine to be refunded if paid

Facts

A police constable arrested the accused on suspicion of being an alien Somali residing in Isiolo District without a pass. When asked by the constable what his tribe was, the accused replied that he was an Aulihan, a tribe permitted to be in that part of the district. The constable subsequently discovered that the accused was not an Aulihan. The accused was charged with giving false information to a person employed in the public service contrary to section 124 of the Penal Code. He pleaded guilty and was convicted and sentenced to a fine of Sh. 300 and six months imprisonment with hard labour, plus three months in default of payment of the fine.

Issues

  1. Whether an answer to a question put to a person under arrest by a police constable constitutes giving information to a person employed in the public service within the meaning of section 124 of the Penal Code.

Orders

  • Appeal allowed.
  • Conviction and sentence set aside.
  • Fine, if paid, ordered to be refunded.

Rules and key headnotes

Criminal Law & Procedure — False Information to Public Servant — Scope of Offence — Answer to Question by Person Under Arrest
An answer to a question put to a person under arrest by a police constable does not constitute giving information to a person employed in the public service within the meaning of section 124 of the Penal Code.
Statutory Interpretation — Penal Code — Interpretation by Reference to Indian Penal Code — Use of Illustrations
Where a provision of the Penal Code is word for word the same as a provision of the Indian Penal Code from which it is culled, the illustrations to the Indian Penal Code provision may be used to interpret the scope of the offence.

Legislation cited (2)

  • Penal Code s.124
  • Indian Penal Code s.182

Cases cited (1)

  • Empress v Devarka Prasad (1884) 6 All. 97

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Rex v Ali (Criminal Appeal No. 31 of 1944) [1944] EACA 5 (1 January 1944)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.