DUTIABLE COMMODITIES.
COMM
No. 36 of 1931.
1949
40.-1) Except as in this section provided, no information laid under this Ordinance shall be admitted in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding whatsoever and no witness shall be obliged or permitted to disclose the name or address of any informer under this Ordinance or state any matter which might lead to his discovery. Moreover, if any books, documents or papers which are in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceeding whatsoever contain any entry in which any informer is named or described or which might lead to his discovery, the court or magistrate shall cause all such passages to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far as may be necessary to protect the informer from discovery but no further. But if on the trial of any offence under this Ordinance the magistrate after full inquiry into the case is satisfied that the informer wilfully made in his information a material statement which he knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true, or if in any other proceeding the court or magistrate is of opinion that justice cannot be fully done between the parties thereto without the discovery of the informer, it shall be lawful for the court or magistrate to require the production of the original information and permit inquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
(2) A magistrate may, on the application of the Superintendent, award to an informer any portion, not exceeding one half, of any fine imposed under this Ordinance.
41. On any trial before any magistrate and in any proceedings on appeal in the Supreme Court relating to the seizure of anything under this Ordinance, the magistrate or the court shall proceed to such trial and to the hearing of such appeal on the merits of the case only, without reference to matters of form and without inquiring into the manner or form of making any seizure except in so far as the manner or form of seizure may be evidence on such merits.
Manner of seizure not to be inquired into by court.
42. Except as otherwise expressly provided, every person who commits any offence against this Ordinance shall upon summary conviction, in addition to any forfeiture under this Ordinance, be liable-
(1) for a first offence, to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months;