PART IX
CONVICTIONS, JUDGMENT, SENTENCES AND THEIR EXECUTION IN THE SUBORDINATE COURTS AND HIGH COURT
C. - Sentences
(a) Passing Sentence in the High Court
314. If the judge convicts the accused person or if he pleads guilty, it shall be the duty of the Registrar or other officer of the court to ask him whether he has anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him according to law, but the omission so to ask him shall have no effect on the validity of the proceedings.
315.-(1) The accused person may, at any time before sentence, whether on plea of guilty or otherwise, move in arrest of judgment on the ground that the information does not, after any amendment which the court is willing and has power to make, state any offence which the court has power to try.
(2) The court may, in its discretion, either hear and determine the matter during the same sitting or adjourn the hearing thereof to a future time to be fixed for that purpose.
(3) If the court decides in favour of the accused he shall be discharged from that information.
316. If no motion in arrest of judgment is made or if the court decides against the accused person upon such motion, the court may sentence the accused person at any time during the sessions.
317. The court before which any person is tried for an offence may reserve the giving of its final decision on questions raised at the trial and its decision whenever given shall be considered as given at the time of trial.
318.-(1) When any person has, in a trial before the High Court, been convicted of an offence, the judge may reserve and refer for the decision of a court consisting of two or more judges of the High Court any question which has arisen in the course of trial and the determination of which would affect the event of the trial.
(2) If the judge reserves any such question, the person convicted shall, pending the decision thereon, be remanded in prison or, if the judge thinks fit, be admitted to bail and the High Court shall have power to review the case or such part thereof as may be necessary and finally determine such question and thereupon to alter the sentence passed by the trial judge and to pass such judgment or order as the High Court may think fit.
319. No judgment shall be stayed or reserved on the ground of any objection which, if stated after the information was read over to the accused person or during the progress of the trial, might have been cured by amendment by the court, nor for any informality in swearing the witnesses or any of them.
320. The court may, before passing the sentence, receive such evidence as it thinks fit in order to inform itself as to the sentence proper to be passed.
321.-(1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 320 the High Court may subject to the provisions of this section, for the purpose of assessing the proper sentence to be passed, take into consideration any other offence committed by the accused person but of which he has not been convicted.
(2) The High Court shall not take any offence into consideration unless–
(a) it has been explained by the court to the accused person in ordinary language that the sentence to be passed upon him for the offence of which he has been convicted in those proceedings may be greater if the other offence is taken into consideration; and
(b) after that explanation the accused person–
(i) admits the commission of the other offence; and
(ii) asks the court to take the other offence into consideration.
(3) Nothing in this section shall entitle the court, after taking another offence into consideration, to pass upon an accused person any sentence in excess of the maximum sentence which could be awarded for the offence of which that person was convicted in those proceedings.
Determination of sentence - national proceedings
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