JUDGMENT

Mohd. Azmi FJ:

The appellant was convicted at the High Court, Kuala Lumpur on a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder with three others still at large, an offence under the first limb of s. 304 read with s. 34 of the Penal Code and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment to take effect from the date of his arrest. He was originally charged under s. 302 read with s. 34 of the Penal Code for the murder of Yap Sim Poh but at the close of the case for prosecution, the charge was amended to the lesser charge for which he was found guilty and convicted. The appellant who at the relevant time lived in Kuala Lumpur and worked as a fishmonger at Petaling Jaya Market, was alleged to have committed the offence with three others still at large on 12 May 1980 at about 9.30 p.m. at Jalan Peria, Sekinchan in the District of Sabak Bernam. He now appeals against conviction and sentence.

Although Datin Saraswathy Devi for the appellant has raised a number of grounds as to why the conviction cannot be sustained, we propose to deal only with two matters which we think are sufficiently material to merit our consideration.

The first is the argument that the trial was a nullity on the