Pakala Narayana Swami vs Emperor Case (1939)- (Case Commentary)

Introduction :

This case is mainly based on the principles for identifying a confession and a dying declaration which relates to various sections of different acts and also on different laws like the criminal law etc. The citation of the case can be written as : (1939) 41 BOMLR 428.  Here in this matter, it relates to Section 32, Section 27, Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872 and Section 162 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. It also deals with various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) like Section 120-B (conspiring to murder), Section 302 (murder) and Section 201 (causing evidence of an offence to disappear). Here, there were mainly two points of consideration before the Privy Council. These were as follows :

1) Firstly, relation of the dying declaration with the incident and the previous circumstances.

2) Secondly, importance of confession before police, made during the investigation.

It is also an appeal from the Hon'ble High Court of Patna, who reversed the decision of the Session Judge of Session Court of Berhampur who had convicted the appellant of the murder of the deceased and sentenced him to penalty of death.

Background :

·         Facts of the case : On Tuesday, March 23, 1937, at noon the body of the deceased man was found in a steel trunk in a third class compartment at Puri, the terminus of a branch line on the Bengal Nagpur Railway, where the trunk had been left unclaimed. The body was found in a box. The body had been cut into seven parts and the medical evidence proved that the body was K.N. The body of the deceased which was found was later identified by his widow. After it was found that the age of the man whose body was found was 40 years and had been married 22 years ago. He was a peon in the service of Dewan of Pithapur. It came to know that one of the daughters of the deceased was the wife of the accused. About the year 1919, the accused and his wife means the deceased daughter tied their knots and got married. They went to live at Berhampur about 250 miles from Pithapur. Later, in 1933 they returned back to Pithapur and started living with the Dewan. On account of their needs of money the accused's wife borrowed Rs 3000 at interest at the rate of 18% per annum. There were about 50 letters and notes proving these transactions signed by the accused’s wife were found in the deceased man's house at Pithapur after his death. On 20^th March, 1937 the deceased received a letter according to which it was clearly mentioned that he was called to Behrampur by the accused. The deceased told about that letter to his wife and said that he has been called to Behrampur for the amount of loan he was in need. Then on the very next day, i.e., on 21^st March, 1937 deceased left his home in the early morning and started travelling to Behrampur to his next destination. He sat in the train. The deceased name was Kuree Nakarju who was murdered and whose dead body was found in the train two days after on 23^rd March, 1937 in a steel trunk in a third class compartment of the train at Puri.

As the accused was the only reason for the deceased to travel for Behrampur, so the accused was arrested in connection with the crime and was charged by the investigating officer for the murder of the deceased. Further, in his statement, the accused admitted that the deceased came to his house on the 21^st March, 1937. Through his statements, it came to know that the deceased arrived in the evening of that particular day, and also slept over in the accused’s house and in the evening of the next day the deceased left for to reach his house and boarded the train back home.

After looking through all the matter and its facts the trial court found the accused guilty of the crime of murder, convicted him and passed a death sentence on him. After that the accused of the case appealed to the High Court against the trial court’s decision of sentencing him death penalty for the murder of the deceased. Still not satisfied with the High Court’s decision the accused appealed to the Privy Council. Then the matter was in hands of Privy Council and it started looking into the matter from the very beginning and also the previous judgments by the lower courts. After going through all the case study of the matter the Privy Council found merit in the appeal and set aside the decision of the lower courts and gave its own judgement. The judgement by the Privy Council stated that the accused was discharged and was acquitted of the conviction and death sentence for the murder of the deceased i.e., Kuree Nakarju.

·         Issues : Issues are always there in every case so happened with this case too. There were many issues regarding the same. The issues raised are as follows :

1)      Whether the statement of the accused is a confession ?

2)      Whether the statement made by the deceased to his wife is a dying declaration ? 

·         Judgement : The Privy Council bench which gave the judgment in the above case consisted of Lord Atkin, Lord G Rankin, Lord Porter, Lord Thankerton and Lord Wright. This bench of judges had set aside the decision of the lower court. In doing so, the court made some more necessary observations for to identify a confessional statement, and a dying declaration as these were the issues raised in this case. Lord Atkin pronounced the judgement as follows :

1)      Firstly, on whether the statement of the accused who murdered the deceased amounts to a confession. In relation to this point above, the Privy Council held that the accused’s statement was partly a confession, and partly explains of his innocence. A confessional statement must contain an admission of the terms of the offence or, a substantial admission of all the facts which constitute the offence.

2)      Secondly, an admission of a gravely incriminating fact even if a conclusively incriminating fact cannot be considered as a confession under Section 162 in The Evidence Act, 1872.

3)      A statement which consist of the self- explanatory matter cannot result to a confession. Kit must be either be taken as a whole or rejected in total.

4)      The statement of the deceased to his wife was considered as a dying declaration and hence admissible under Section 32 (1) of the Indian Evidence Act.

Analysis :

After reading the full case in detail many opinions and arguments were laid down in the above case. My opinion regarding the case can be summarised as follows :

Confession, whether it is judicial, extra- judicial or self confession, it is regarded as admission. Where a court has made certain grounds to belief that the confession is true and voluntary, the court can convict an accused of the murder based on his confessional statement, even if there is an absence of the evidences. It must be an admission of facts which constitute the offence as a ground of conviction. If the accused’s statement partly explains his innocence, that statement cannot be treated as a confession. In case of dying declaration, ' dying declaration' means ' words said before the death'. According to Section 32 (1) of the Indian Evidence Act, “ A statement made by the person which explains the cause of his death or any circumstances of the transaction which resulted in his death” is a dying declaration. The statement can be either in form of oral statement, gesture, signs or in written form. Generally, dying declaration are mainly related with words and sayings made by persons who reasonably anticipate that are about to their death bed. However in this case, the time the deceased made the statement to his wife, he did not anticipate his death. But according to Section 32 (1) of the Indian Evidence Act clearly explains the said statement. Though the general presumption of ‘ expectation of death' if the deceased did not apply to the above case, the statement still comes under section 32 (1) and considered as dying declaration according to this section. 

There were also criticisms regarding the same case as the statement of the accused will not be considered as confession and lastly, the statement made by the deceased will not be considered as dying declaration.

Conclusion :

In this case, of Pakala Swami the Privy Council gave the definition of the word ' confession'. This definition of confession was necessary so as to invigorate the trust and faith of the citizens of India and also through this matter people will come to know about the meaning of anticipation of death i.e., a person was expecting death or not and how the word ' confession' can be used as a measure in evidence act.

- Aradhaya Singh

Indraprastha Law College.