PRACTICE NOTE: BARON
V.
LARBI

OLLENNU J.: The practice seems to have grown up in the local courts, where there is more than one plaintiff or defendant in a suit, having identical interest in the suit, for one of such plaintiffs or defendants to give evidence on behalf of himself and of all his co-plaintiffs and co-defendants, each of his said colleague’s indicating on oath his consent that his colleague should speak on his behalf. There is nothing wrong with that practice. If anything it is superfluous. A party to a suit is not bound to give evidence and the court cannot compel him to give evidence if he does not want to. And if a party, having gone into the witness-box and sworn or affirmed, elects to give no evidence his opponent is not obliged to cross-examine him. This procedure, therefore, is not irregular, and cannot vitiate the proceedings and the judgment in the case.

(Baron, etc. v. Larbi, Ollennu, J.)