Wakilii

Rex v Bakari (Criminal Appeal No. 110 of 1940)

East African Court of Appeal · [1940] EACA 20 · 1940 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction by High Court of Tanganyika
Decision
Conviction and sentence upheld

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 information charging entering a dwelling-house with intent to commit a felony should specify the particular felony intended, but failure to do so is not necessarily fatal if the accused was not prejudiced. Where the evidence made plain to the appellant what felony was alleged (attempting to steal a tin box or its contents), and no reasonable possibility of prejudice existed, the defect could be cured under section 335 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The appeal was dismissed.

Outcome

Conviction and sentence upheld

Facts

The appellant was convicted of entering a dwelling-house with intent to commit a felony therein. The information failed to specify which particular felony was intended. The evidence of the first witness made it clear that the allegation was that the appellant was attempting to steal a tin box or its contents. The appellant was absent and unrepresented at the appeal. The court found the evidence very clear but acknowledged the information was defective.

Issues

  1. Whether an information charging entering a dwelling-house with intent to commit a felony therein must specify the particular felony intended.
  2. Whether failure to specify the particular felony intended is a fatal defect in the information.
  3. Whether the appellant was prejudiced by the defect in the information.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.

Rules and key headnotes

Criminal Law & Procedure — Informations and Charges — Particularity Required — Entering Dwelling-House with Intent to Commit Felony
An information charging an accused with entering a dwelling-house with intent to commit a felony therein should specify the particular felony intended.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Defective Informations — Prejudice Test — Application of Section 335 Criminal Procedure Code
Failure to specify the particular felony intended in an information will not be a fatal defect if the accused was not thereby prejudiced, and section 335 of the Criminal Procedure Code may be applied to cure the defect where there is no reasonable possibility of prejudice.
Statutory Interpretation — Criminal Procedure Code Section 335 — Limits on Curative Provision
Section 335 of the Criminal Procedure Code must not be regarded as a panacea capable of curing all deficiencies in informations and charges; it cannot be invoked where there is a reasonable possibility that the accused may have been prejudiced by an error or omission.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Criminal Procedure Code s.335

Cases cited (1)

  • Balmakand Ram v Ghansam Ram (22 Cal. 405)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Rex v Bakari (Criminal Appeal No. 110 of 1940) [1940] EACA 20 (1 January 1940)
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.