609674-1928-Supplementary-Draft-Bill--Magistrates-Amendment — Page 2

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(6) For the purpose of the review the magistrate shall have all the powers, as to securing the attendance of the parties and witnesses and other- wise, that he would have if the matter were brought before him as an original complaint or informa-

tion.

(7) No application for a review shall be granted if any proceedings have been commenced by either party with a view to questioning the deci- sion of the magistrate by way of appeal, mandamus or vertiorari, unless such proceedings shall have been abandoned, but any such pro- ceedings shall not debar the magis- trate from reviewing his decision on his own initiative, as provided for by sub-section (1).

(8). The decision of the magistrate upon a review shall for the purposes of sections 98 and 103 be deemed to be the determination of a proceeding which he has power to determine in a summary way.

3. The Third Schedule of the Magistrates Ordi- nance, 1890, is amended as follows :---

Amendment of Ordinance No. 3 of 1890,

(a) By the insertion in paragraph 10 thereof after Third

the word libels" of the following words, Schedule.

except as provided by section 17 of the Defaniation and Libel Ordinance, 1887”.

(b) By the deletion of paragraph 11 thereof.

Objects and Reasons.

1. Clause 2 of this Bill amends the present section 96 of Ordinance No. 3 of 1890, which was enacted by Ordinance No. 23 of 1927, section 13, by restoring to a magistrate the power to review his decision on his own initiative, which power existed in the original section 96 of Ordinance No. 3 of 1890, but seems to have been omitted by inadvertence when that section was redrafted for insertion in Ordinance No. 23 of 1927.

2. It seems obviously desirable that a magistrate should retain such power of reviewing his own deci- sion. This power of review is limited to a period of seven clear days from the date of his original decision.

3. Clause 3 (a) of this Bill amends paragraph 10 of the Third Schedule to the Magistrates Ordinance, 1890, by drawing attention to the fact that in the ease of a criminal charge for libel, which the magistrate considers to be of a trivial character, there is power, with the assent of the party charged, for the magistrate to deal with such libel charge summarily.

4. The other amendment effected by clause 3 of this Bill is to delete paragraph 11 from the Third Schedule of the Magistrates Ordinance for the reasons that defamatory libels are specifically included in paragraph 10 of that Schedule and that verbal defamation cannot be made the subject of a criminal charge.

H. E. POLLOCK,

Attorney General.

18th July, 1928.