418
K
It was obvious that the authenticity of the entries contained in it had been established beyond any reasonable doubt in the Witchell prosecution and endorsed by the verdict of a jury; and had further been tested successfully in the proceedings against Osmanu & Hore by the Executive Council.
It was obvious that in any case taken up against any of the remaining public officers on the list, the whole foundation of the evidence, and in the vast majority of cases the entire evidence adducible, would rest on or consist of the list of the names of the recipients of bribes from the Wa Line gambling house.
But in the Witchell case, the Chief Justice had intimated that as the defence had not demanded that the list should be put in evidence, it could not have been put in evidence by the prosecution - a fact of which the learned Counsel for the prosecution showed they were well aware, for they never attempted to put the list in evidence, though sorely desiring to do so.
It was therefore clear that after the dictum of the Chief Justice, it would be impossible to use the list as evidence in any enquiry conducted on strictly legal technical lines.
Therefore, it was certain that a prosecution in a case like that of the Petitioner's under Section 22 of Ordinance 14 of 1887 would be embarked upon with grave danger of disaster.
Since