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10
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(s. 31 contd.]
arrest:
(b) to search the person and property and effects of any person whom it may be lawful for such public officer to Provided that no female person shall be searched except by a female, and provided that no person shall be searched in a public place if he objects to be so searched;
(c) to search any place in which such public officer may have reason to suspect that there may be any thing whic under paragraph (f) is liable to seizure;
(d) to search, and, if necessary to stop and search, any ship (not being or having the status of a ship of war) in which such public officer may have reason to suspect that there may be any thing which under paragraph (f) is liaho to seizure;
(e) to search any place which such public officer may have reason to suspect to be an opium divan;
(f) to seize, remove and detain
(i) any thing with respect to which such public officer may have reasonable grounds for suspecting that any offence against this Ordinance has been committed;
(ii) any book or other document which such public officer may have reasonable grounds for suspecting to relate to, or to be connected directly or indirectly with, any transaction or dealing which was, or any intended transaction or dealing which would if carried out be, an offence against this Ordinance, or, in the case of a transaction or dealing carried out or intended to be carried out in any place outside the Colony, an offence against the provisions of any corres- ponding law in force in that place; or
(ii) any other thing which may appear to such officer likely to be, or to contain, evidence of any such offence, transaction or dealing.
(2) Such public officer may—
(a) break open any outer or inner door of or in any such
place;
(b) forcibly enter any such ship and every part thereof; (c) remove by force any personal or material obstruction to any arrest, detention, scarch, inspection, seizure, or removal, which he is empowered to make;
(d) detain every person found in such place until such place has been searched; and
(e) detain every such ship, and every person on board such ship, and prevent every person from approaching or boarding such ship, until such ship has been searched.
(3) No person shall delay or obstruct any detention, arrest, search, inspection, seizure, or removal, which is authorised by this Ordinance.
(4) Any authority given by the Superintendent under this section may be given to an individual or to a class, and may be-
(a) general, so as to embrace all the powers referred to in this section; or
(b) limited, so as to embrace only a portion of those powers; or
(c) particular, for a particular occasion.
32. If any search made under this Ordinance is unsuc- Compensa-
Lion for cessful and there is no reason to suppose that any opium unsuccessful liable to forfeiture under this Ordinance has been thrown search to be away or otherwise disposed of in order to avoid detection, the paid by Superin- Superintendent shall make good any damage caused thereby, tendent. No action shall be maintainable in respect of any such damage. In the event of any dispute as to the fact or amount of any damage, the dispute shall in every case be decided by the Superintendent or by some person nominated by him for that purpose.
Miscellaneous.
seizure not
33. In any proceedings before a magistrate or on appeal Manner of to the Supreme Court relating to the seizure of any opium, seizur implements, or other articles, the seizure whereof is authorised inquired into. by any of the provisions of this Ordinance, it shall be lawful for such magistrate and for the judges, and they are hereby respectively required, to proceed in such cases on the merits only, without reference to matters of form and without inquiring into the manner or form of making any seizure, excepting in so far as the manner and form of seizure may be evidence on such merits.
information
tion of
34. (1) Except as hereinafter mentioned, no informa- Rules as to tion laid under this Ordinance shall be admitted in evidence in secrecy of any civil or criminal proceeding, and no witness shall be and protec obliged to disclose the name or address of any informer or to informers. state any matter which might lead to his discovery, and if any books, documents or papers which are in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceeding contain any entry in which any such 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.
(2) But if, in any proceedings before a magistrate for any offence against any provision of this Ordinance, the magis- trate, after full inquiry into the case, believes 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 to permit inquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
may permit
35. (1) Whenever two or more persons are charged Magistrate with any offence against this Ordinance, the magistrate may accused permit any of them to give evidence for the prosecution. persons
to give evidence for prosecution
in certain
cases,
(2) Every person so permitted to give evidence, who shall Accused in the opinion of the magistrate make true and full discovery persons thus
assisting of all things as to which he is lawfully examined, shall be prosecution entitled to receive a certificate of indemnity under the hand to obtain of the magistrate stating that he has made a true and full from prose
indemnity
cution.
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