CRIMINAL EVIDENCE.
No. 14 of 1906.
1677
No. 11 of 1906, repealed by Law Revision Ordinance, 1924.
No. 12 of 1906, incorporated in No. 3 of 1888.
No. 13 of 1906, repealed by No. 8 of 1912.
No. 14 of 1906.
An Ordinance to amend the law of evidence in criminal cases.
[12th October, 1906.]
[Originally No. 14 of 1906. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.]
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Criminal Evidence Ordinance, 1906.
Short title.
2. Every person charged with an offence, and the wife or husband, as the case may be, of the person so charged, shall be a competent witness for the defence at every stage of the proceedings, whether the person so charged is charged solely or jointly with any other person: Provided as follows:---
(a) a person so charged shall not be called as a witness in pursuance of this Ordinance except upon his own application;
(b) the failure of any person charged with an offence or of the wife or husband, as the case may be, of the person so charged, to give evidence shall not be made the subject of any comment by the prosecution;
(c) the wife or husband of the person charged shall not, save as in this Ordinance mentioned, be called as a witness in pursuance of this Ordinance except upon the application of the person so charged;
(d) nothing in this Ordinance shall make a husband compellable to disclose any communication made to him by his wife during the marriage, or a wife compellable to disclose any communication made to her by her husband during the marriage;
(e) a person charged and being a witness in pursuance of this Ordinance may be asked any question in cross-examination notwithstanding that it would tend to criminate him as to the offence charged;
* As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.
61 & 62 Vict. c. 36, s. 1.
Competency of witnesses