Mirza Akbar v. Emperor, Privy Council(1940)

This landmark case is related to Section 10 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Section 10 talks states- “Things said or done by conspirator in reference to common design“

Section 10 has two-fold objectives:

i) Proving conspiracy.

ii) Who was the conspirator?

Facts:

Mirza Akbar (accused) was tried for the murder of the husband of mehr laka.
Mirza akbar and mehr laka planned to murder the husband of mehr laka.
Mirza akbar wrote letter stating that- “I have arranged means to murder”. To this letter mehr laka also responded.
Further, Mirza akbar hired the person to murder the husband of mehr laka.
During the trial, mehr laka deposed before the court that:

i) Letter sent by mirza akbar to her, that is, Pre-murder deposition.

ii) Her own version of story before the curt, that is, Post-murder deposition.

Issue:

The question before the Privy Council was that whether post-murder deposition (her own version of story) is relevant or not?

Judgement:

The Privy Council held that only (i) is relevant and not (ii). Which means that only Pre-murder deposition is relevant because post-murder deposition by mehr laka was the statement after the conspiracy was over. So, it means only those statements are relevant which are made during the conspiracy.

Other important cases related to Section 10 of Indian Evidence act: