2
: 6.
The Bill at Annex B, confers on selected magistrates
a power to impose up to 4 years' imprisonment for one offence (and 5 for consecutive offences) as opposed to a maximum of
2 years (and 3 years for consecutive offences) at present
enjoyed by permanent magistrates.
7. The Bill proposes that a new class of magistrate, to
be called a principal magistrate, would have the increased
power. The Chief Justice would, by notice in the Gazette,
appoint a sufficient number of his existing permanent magis-
trates as principal magistrates. Although the effect of the
Bill is not to require that the powers be exercised only by
members of the superscale grade of principal magistrate, the
Chief Justice intends to apply for the creation of a sufficient
number of posts within this grade to ensure that the enhanced
powers are in practice exercised only by magistrates of this
grade, who will invariably have many years experience of
criminal jurisdiction in Hong Kong.
8. The Chief Justice has been consulted on these Bills
and is generally agreeable to them, though in his view the
enhanced powers of principal magistrates should be limited to
3 years (4 years in the case of consecutive sentences) rather
than 4 years (5 years in the case of consecutive sentences)
as proposed in the Bill. The Commissioner of Police supports
the Bills.
9. It may be that some members of the legal profession
will dislike a proposal whereby increased punishment can be
imposed upon accused persons convicted before a single magis-
trate or a District Judge. The Bar Association has, in the
past, pressed for more cases to go to the Supreme Court for
trial before a jury and may well feel obliged to oppose the
reduction in the number of such committals which should follow