Directory_and_Chronicle_1915 — Page 404

RULES OF SUPREME COURT IN CHINA

Court may, when an action is pending, take the evidence of any witness at any time as preparatory to the hearing, and the evidence so taken

be used at the hearing, subject to just exceptions.

may

Any Court or Consular officer shall, on the request in writing of any Court before which an action is pending, so take evidence for

of the action. purposes

(3) The evidence shall be taken in like manner, as nearly as may be, as evidence at the hearing of an action is to be taken, 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 officer shall add a note of his refusal, and the evidence may be used as if he had signed it.

(4) Evidence may be taken in like manner on the application of any person, although no action is pending, where it is proved that the person applying has good reason to apprehend that a proceeding will be taken against him in the Court, and that some person within the particular jurisdiction at the time of application can give material evidence respecting the subject of the apprehended proceeding, but that he is about to leave the particular jurisdiction, or that from some other cause the person applying will lose the benefit of his evidence if it is not at once taken.

affidavits.

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15.—(1) All affidavits are to be expressed in the first person, and Mode of drawing drawn up in numbered paragraphs, and shall be entitled in the action or matter in which they are sworn.

(2) All affidavits, other than those for which forms are given in the Second Schedule, are to state the deponent's age (if he is not of full age), his occupation, quality, and place of residence, and also what facts or circumstances deposed to are within the deponent's own knowledge, and what facts or circumstances deposed to are known to or believed by him, by reason of information derived from other sources than his own knowledge.

(3) The costs of affidavits not in conformity with the last two preceding sections shall be disallowed on taxation, unless the Court shall otherwise direct.

of affidavits,

16.-(1) The officers before whom affidavits may be sworn are Requirements Judges of Courts, Consular officers, and the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

(2) The affidavit when sworn shall be signed by the witness (or, if he cannot write, marked by him with his mark) in the presence of an officer authorized as aforesaid.

(3) The jurat shall be written without interlineation, alteration, or erasure, immediately at the foot of the affidavit, and towards the left side of the paper, and shall be signed by the officer, and be sealed by him with the official seal.

(4) The jurat shall state the date of the swearing, the place where it is swcra, and shall name or designate the officer before whom it

is sworn.

(5) Where the witness is blind or illiterate, the jurat shall state that fact, and that the affidavit was read over to him in the presence of the officer, and that the witness appeared to understand it.

(6) Wh re the witness makes a mark instead of signing, the jurat shall state that fact, and that the mark was made in the presence of

the officer.

(7) Where two or more persons join in making an affidavit, their several names shall be written in the jurat, and it shall appear by the jurat that each of them has been sworn to the truth of the several mitters stated by him in the affidavit.

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