Principle Archive

On no account should a court raise a point suo motu, however clear it may appear, and then proceed to resolve it without inviting the parties…

In the determination of disputes between parties, the court should confine itself to the issues raised by the parties. The court is not competent to suo…

Where the court raises an issue suo motu and the issue goes to the root of the case, the parties must be given an opportunity to…

If several persons embark on an enterprise to commit a felony and have the preconceived common intention to use violence of any degree, if necessary, for…

Where a number of persons acting in concert join in an unlawful assault which results in the death of their victim, it is not mandatory for…

When two or more persons form a common intention to prosecute an unlawful purpose in conjunction with one another, and in the prosecution of such purpose…

The moment a court rewrites a statute, the intention of the lawmaker is thrown overboard and the court changes place with the lawmaker. That is against…

Foreign authorities of the greatest learning cannot supplant domestic case law that is rightly decided on issues coming before the court. Foreign decisions will continue to…

One main objective of section 97(2)(c) of the Evidence Act is to ensure the authenticity of the document tendered vis-a-vis the original. This is in addition…

Section 97(2)(a) of the Evidence Act anticipates private documents, while section 97(2)(c) provides for public documents. Private documents are all documents which are not public documents…

The only acceptable secondary evidence of a public document is a certified true copy. Section 97(2)(c) of the Evidence Act provides that no other kind of…

The use of the word "fraudulently" can be accommodated under the ejusdem generis rule to stand in for the word "otherwise" as used in section 19(1)(a)…