Section 324: Fair trial – Composition of jury—The plaintiff seeks redress pursuant
consolidated text (as at 2017). juris shows the text as it was consolidated; it does not confirm that this is the law in force today.
324. Fair trial – Composition of jury—The plaintiff seeks redress pursuant
to section 17 of the Constitution on the ground that he has not been afforded a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law
by reason of—
(i) the fact that the relevant jury list contained 4,000 names although there were some 175,000 persons in employment and
some 45,000 income tax payers;
(ii) the fact that the jury list was not compiled according to law.
The defendant says that the plaint cannot be entertained because, first,
the matter is “chose jugée” and, secondly, because adequate measures of
redress against the alleged infringement of the plaintiff’s rights have been
available to him.
HELD (i) since the Privy Council had affirmed the plaintiff’s conviction he
could not raise those issues anew, and
(ii) the proviso to section 17 (2) of the Constitution does not permit
the Supreme Court to grant redress where it is satisfied that other means of
redress were available. Poongavanam v DPP (1993).