Judgement

In this petition Mohammad Yakub Khan, who was a commissioned officer in the Indian Army, sought for special leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council as an act of grace from his conviction and sentence, on December 9, 1943, by a Summary General Court Martial at Calcutta, on charges of misappropriation of government stores, embezzlement and insubordination. He was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment and to be cashiered. The sentence was confirmed by the General Officer in Chief Commanding, Eastern Command on December 29, 1943.

The petitioner claimed that his conviction was bad owing mainly to the fact that the trial was vitiated by errors of law and legal procedure, in that there had been illegal joinder of charges contrary to the provisions both of the Criminal Procedure Code and of the Indian Army Act

Law Rep. 74 Ind. App. 8 ( 1946- 1947) Mohammad Yakub Khan V. King-Emperor 2

which seriously hampered his defence, and by the refusal to allow him to produce evidence of his good character, which, he said, with other alleged defects, amounted to a grave and substantial miscarriage of justice.

The argument before the Judicial Committee was confined to the preliminar