Wakilii

Rex v Misick (Confirmation Case No. 655 of 1941)

East African Court of Appeal · [1940] EACA 67 · 1940 Conviction Quashed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal confirmation case reviewing conviction for resisting arrest
Decision
Accused released

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Where an officer in charge of a police station has reasonable grounds to suspect a person of a cognizable offence and wishes to depute subordinate officers to arrest that person in his absence, he must comply with section 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code and deliver a written order. Subordinate officers acting on verbal instructions alone are not acting in the due execution of their duty. Conviction for resisting arrest set aside.

Outcome

Accused released

Facts

The officer in charge of Kericho Police Station received information and proceeded to Chemagel with eight armed constables. At Chemagel he met Chief Arap Tile, placed the constables in the chief's charge, and issued verbal instructions to arrest three Kipsigis including the accused on suspicion of murder. The accused resisted arrest by the subordinate constables. He was convicted of resisting police officers in the due execution of their duty contrary to section 231(b) of the Penal Code. The case came before the Court of Appeal for confirmation.

Issues

  1. Whether subordinate police officers were acting in the due execution of their duty when arresting the accused on verbal instructions from an officer in charge of a police station, without a written order as required by section 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Orders

  • Conviction and sentence set aside.
  • Accused ordered released on this charge.

Rules and key headnotes

Arrest Without Warrant — Deputation of Power — Written Order Requirement
If the reasonable grounds of suspicion which authorize an arrest without a warrant are in the knowledge of an officer in charge of a police station, and he wishes to depute his power to a subordinate, he must comply with the provisions of section 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code and deliver to his deputy the statutory order in writing.
Arrest Without Warrant — Due Execution of Duty — Verbal Instructions Insufficient
Subordinate police officers effecting an arrest on the verbal order of an officer in charge of a police station, without the written order required by section 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code, are not acting in the due execution of their duty.
Arrest Without Warrant — Relationship Between Sections 27 and 29 of Criminal Procedure Code
Section 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code does not override section 27, which empowers any police officer to arrest without warrant a person suspected on reasonable grounds of having committed a cognizable offence. Section 27 provides the officer in charge with the original authority to arrest personally, without which he could not depute a subordinate officer to arrest on his behalf under section 29.

Legislation cited (4)

  • Criminal Procedure Code s.27
  • Criminal Procedure Code s.28
  • Criminal Procedure Code s.29
  • Penal Code s.231(b)

Cases cited (1)

  • Queen Empress v Basant Lall (1900) 27 Calcutta 320

Full judgment

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

Rex v Misick (Confirmation Case No. 655 of 1941) [1940] EACA 67 (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.