The Mauritius Privy Council Reports: Sooriamurthy Darmalingum v The State
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Array
Hi everyone,This weekend some friends and I went to watch Chinese Men DontBoogie”. Its a play about an Asian American family dealing with manydifferent issues, mostly relating to racism. I enjoy watching AsianAmerican plays. Its a workshop presentation, so the actors still havethe scripts in their hands. It has dance sequences interspersedthroughout the play. As a result, its about 2.5 hours long. Itdefinitely could be edited. The play is showing at the East L.A.College in Monterey Park and there are only two performances left.Next weekend Ill be driving up to San Francisco to hang out withfriends. Im looking forward to the trip and I hope to see many of youwhile Im up there!This weeks thought provoking question is: If you could have changedone thing about your parents while you were a child, what would it havebeen?This weeks humor was forwarded by Jennifer Chin, followed by aninspirational piece forwarded by Anna Man.Enjoy!-Josh._________________________________________What DO they want?A group of girlfriends is on vacation when they see a 5-story hotel witha sign that reads: “For Women Only”. Since they are without theirboyfriends and husbands, they decide to go in. The bouncer, a veryattractive guy, explains to them how it works. “We have 5 floors. Go upfloor by floor, and once you find what you are looking for, you can staythere. Its easy to decide since each floor has a sign telling youwhats inside.”So they start going up and on the first floor the sign reads: “All themen on this floor are short and plain.” The friends laugh and withouthesitation move on to the next floor. The sign on the second floorreads: “All the men here are short and handsome.” Still, this isnt goodenough, so the friends continue on up. They reach the third floor andthe sign reads: All the men here are tall and plain. They still wantto do better, and so, knowing there are still two floors left, theycontinued on up. On the fourth floor, the sign is perfect: All the menhere are tall and handsome. The women get all excited and are going inwhen they realize that there is still one floor left.Wondering what they are missing, they head on up to the fifth floor.There they find a sign that reads: There are no men here. This floorwas built only to prove that there is no way to please a woman.__________________________________________The Missing PieceShel SilversteinIt tells the story of a circle that was missing a piece. A largetriangular wedge had been cut out of it.The circle wanted to be whole with nothing missing, so it went aroundlooking for its missing piece.But because it was incomplete and therefore could only roll very slowly,it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyedthe sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit.So it left them all by the side of the road and continued searching.Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was sohappy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated themissing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfectcircle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talkto the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when itrolled so quickly by, it stopped, left its found piece by the side ofthe road and rolled slowly away.Moral of the storyIn some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something.The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will neverknow what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with thedream of something better. He will never know the experience of havingsomeone who loves him give him something he has always wanted and neverhad.There is a wholeness about the person who has to come to terms with hisown limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealisticdreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholenessabout the man or women who has learned that he or she is strong enoughto go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feellike a complete person. You have been through the worst and come throughintact.Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us forfailing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many wordsyouve gotten right, youre disqualified if you make one mistake. Lifeis more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-thirdof the games and even the worst has its days of brilliance.Our goal is to win more games than we lose.When we accept that imperfection is part of human being, and that we cancontinue rolling through life and appreciating it, we will achieve awholeness that others can only aspire to. And at the end, if we arebrave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough torejoice in anothers happiness, and wise enough to know there is enoughlove to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that noother living creature will ever know
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Sarah you know I hidin the basement when she cameaway from paranoia and painyou lost me amidsogginess and trying to erase yourown aloneness,I kept forgetting who wasthe most infuriating between us,forever bending, cracking up, lighting up the shadowsthat showedSarah you know I hit only when hit.I disassembled the skeletons in the closetand was assured they were not mine.you sank my star,contrived how it died and watched me die,the last good time had by all.7/11/00#67 from The Family Creeps
to be one ofthe family creepsI’m prettyand in a roundabout wayquite irrelevantfor my age.there is greater sadnesscoming in the last daysso I’ll be rolling outthe beautiful androlling in the sugarand whatever doesn’t stickcan be your supper.to be one ofthe family creepsI’m sickand in a roundabout wayI’m perfect.there is no great emotioncomingbut you knew that.7/10/00#66 from The Family Creeps
The State Respondent FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF MAURITIUS ————— REASONS FOR DECISION OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF THE 22nd May 2000, Delivered the 10th July 2000 —————— Present at the hearing:- Lord Steyn Lord Hope of Craighead Sir Patrick Russell Sir Andrew Leggatt Mr. Justice Blanchard [Delivered by Lord Steyn] —————— At the conclusion of the hearing before their Lordships on 22nd May 2000 the appeal of the appellant was allowed and the convictions and sentences on all counts quashed. On 22nd May 2000 the Privy Council heard the appellant’s appeal, which by direction of their Lordships was confined to grounds of appeal relating to delay, namely the delay of 8½ years between the time of the appellant’s arrest in 1985 and his conviction May 1993 as well as the delay of a further 5 years between his conviction and the final disposal of the appeal in the Supreme Court of Mauritius. The Appeal to the Supreme Court On 31st May 1993 the appellant lodged grounds of appeal. On that occasion the Supreme Court heard argument on only one ground of appeal, namely the argument that by reason of the inordinate pre-trial delay the proceedings were an abuse of process. The majority agreed that time may run from the time a person is charged (in this case December 1985) but treated the appellant as bound by an argument advanced before the Intermediate Court based on the effect of delay from the time of the decision of the D.P.P. They acknowledged an argument “that there had been delay since the time that this appeal had been argued before two Judges of this court in March 1994”. They observed:- “Although we do take note that this is so, we do not consider it either proper or pertinent for us to go into the reasons for that delay, especially as it relates to a post-trial period, such that it cannot in our view, have, per se any real bearing upon the question whether the appellant has been denied a fair trial.” The following ground of appeal was before the court:- “Because the delay which has elapsed between the arrest of the appellant in December 1985 and the final hearing of the appeal on 22 January 1998 i.e. (i) in relation to the interlocutory judgment earlier delivered, this Court had to be reconstituted by the addition of a third judge in view of the conflicting views of the two judges who initially heard the grounds of appeal relating to delay, and arguments had to be heard anew before the Court thus re-constituted; (ii) the appellant is merely relying on delay per se at appeal stage, without relying on any facts – At the same time the court rejected an argument that, in view of the delay of more than 12 years since the arrest of the appellant, a custodial sentence was no longer right. An important reason why the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal was doubt whether the constitutional right to a fair trial within a reasonable time under section 10(1) of the Constitution extends to appellate proceedings. The Issues Apart from a number of points directed to the issues of delay, the grounds of appeal before the Privy Council contained points on the voluntariness of the statements and the question whether Balancy and Lam Shang Leen JJ. The pre-trial delay Counsel for the appellant relied singly and in combination on the pre-trial delay as well as the delay during the appellate proceedings. The argument before the Intermediate Court led it to believe that the relevant period of delay was not from the time that the appellant was arrested but from September 1988 when the Solicitor-General took the decision to prosecute the appellant. In considering the period of pre-trial delay the Supreme Court felt compelled to approach the matter on the basis that the relevant period started when the Solicitor-General decided to prosecute. In the result it is necessary to consider a delay of 6 years and 9 months between the arrest of the appellant in December 1985 and the ruling of the Intermediate Court on this point in June 1992. The delay in the appellate proceedings It is now necessary to consider the delay in the disposal of the appellate proceedings. It would be strange if a defendant was afforded protection in a Bill of Rights against undue delay in his trial but left wholly unprotected in respect of oppressively delayed appellate proceedings. The fact that a delay of almost 7 years had taken place between the time of the arrest of the appellant and his conviction should have heightened this sense of urgency. Regrettably, their Lordships must record that the cause of the delay must be laid at the door of the Supreme Court of Mauritius. Counsel for the respondent argued however that the appropriate remedy in this case is to affirm the conviction and to remit the matter of sentence to the Supreme Court so that it may substitute a non-custodial sentence in view of the delay.
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The rest of our week in Paris was spent quite productively… And I only spent about 4 hours there, however - though short, I learned a lot! Well, we got to talking, and turns out - he used to give tours at the Louvre for years and ended up giving me my own personal tour!! 
Been trying to sit down and study..18th - CVS Pathology MCQThis Thursday :D26th - OSCENext Friday :D29th - Respiratory Pathology MCQThe Monday after!!?? We got into the cinema just on time - and I was just glued to my seat - didn’t matter how much I needed to go to the bathroom..