Speech by the Honourable the Attorney General,
Mr Michael Thomas, CMG, QC,
in Legislative Council on Wednesday, 14 January 1987
Magistrates (Amendment) Bill
Sir,
I move the second reading of the Magistrates
(Amendment) Bill.
2.
In a Magistrates Court, the complaint, information or
summons must set out the offence alleged against a defendant.
However, Section 27 of the Magistrates Ordinance as presently
enacted, does not allow any objection to be taken to any defect
in the substance or form of a complaint, information or summons.
As the law stands, the magistrate must give judgement on the
substantial merits and facts of the case, and make any necesssary
amendments to the complaint, information or summons. The
magistrate has no discretion in the matter.
3.
There is
The rigidity of this procedure has, from time to time,
been criticised by both practitioners and magistrates.
general agreement that the magistrate must have a discretion to
avoid injustice and that the law should give some guidelines upon
which to exercise that discretion when the case that emerges at
the trial does not establish the offence alleged in the
information, complaint or summons, but does disclose some other
offence. For example, the date or the place may not be as
alleged or there may have been some mistake in describing the
offence.