Judgement

Appeal (No. 64 of 1944), by special leave, from a judgment of the High Court (March 14, 1944), confirming the conviction of the appellant of the murder of one Allah Dad and the sentence of death passed on him by the Sessions Judge, Mianwali (December 20, 1943).

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee The appellant, Mahbub Shah, was aged nineteen. He had been convicted of murder under s. 302, read with s. 34 of the Indian Penal Code. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of one Hamidullah Khan, and sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment, but that conviction had not been brought before the Board. The main question raised in this appeal was whether the appellant had been rightly convicted of murder on the true construction of s. 34 of the Indian Penal Code, which provides "When a criminal act is done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as if the act were done by him alone."

Along with the appellant, his cousin Ghulam Quasim Shah, aged eighteen, was also convicted under s. 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to transportation