Second Reading of Bills
JURY (AMENDMENT) BILL 1988
THE CHIEF SECRETARY moved the Second Reading of 'A Bill to amend the Jury Ordinance'.
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He said:
Sir,
I move that the Jury (Amendment) Bill 1988 be
read a second time.
The Bill addresses four problems.
The first problem is concerned with exemptions from jury service. Section 5 of the Ordinance exempts certain categories of person from jury service. The provision to exempt Urban Councillors from jury service le. was made in 1971 when it was considered that the
la Councillors' duties should take precedence over their duty
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to render jury service. Furthermore, as certain duties of the Urban Councillors are of a judicial nature, such as the granting or refusal of hawker licences, there could be potential conflicts of interest if they were not exempted from jury service. Members of the Regional Council, having similar duties, should be afforded the same treatment and be exempted. The opportunity is also taken to delete the word 'ordinary' from the term 'ordinary member', which was originally used to describe members who were not Government officials, as
as there are no longer "official" members on the Urban and Regional Councils.
now
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