CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE.
Evidence de bene esse.
No. 3 of 1901.
.1189
use of evidence de
319. (1) Where the circumstances of the case appear to the court so to require, the court may take the evidence of any witness or person at any time in the course of the proceedings in any cause before the trial of the cause, or may order that such evidence shall be taken by the Registrar or by any other person, and at any place.
(2) The evidence shall be taken, as nearly as may be, in the same way as evidence at the trial of an action, and then the note of the evidence shall be read over to the witness and tendered to him for signature; and if he refuses to sign it, the court, or the Registrar, or such other person, as the case may be, shall add a note of his refusal, and the evidence may be used as if he had signed it.
H. K. Code,
320. If in any case the court so orders, there shall be issued a request to examine witnesses in lieu of a commission as provided for by any Ordinance relating to evidence.
O. 37, r. 6 A. [cf. No. 2 of 1889.]
evidence
321. Evidence may be taken in like manner, on the application of any person before action brought, where it is shown upon oath, to the satisfaction of the court, that the person applying has good reason to apprehend that an action will be brought against him in the court, and that some person, within the jurisdiction at the time of the application, can give material evidence respecting the subject of the apprehended action, but is about to leave the jurisdiction, or that from some other cause the person applying will lose the benefit of his evidence if it is not at once taken: Provided that the court may, on granting such application, impose any terms or conditions with respect to the examination of any such witness and the admission of his evidence as to the court may seem reasonable.
produce
322. The court may in any cause, at any stage of the proceedings, order the attendance of any person for the purpose of producing any document named in the order to which the court may think fit to be produced: Provided that no person shall be compelled to produce under any such order any document which he could not be compelled to produce at the trial.
O. 37, r. 7.