PART III—APPEALS.

Revision.

48. Power of courts to call for records.

The High Court may call for and examine the record of any criminal proceedings before any magistrate’s court for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded or passed, and as to the regularity of any proceedings of the magistrate’s court.


49. Power of magistrates to call for records of inferior courts and to report to High Court.

(1) Any magistrate may call for and examine the record of any criminal proceedings before a magistrate’s court inferior to the court which he or she is empowered to hold, and situate within the local limits of his or her jurisdiction, for the purpose of satisfying himself or herself as to the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded or passed, and as to the regularity of any proceedings of the inferior magistrate’s court.

(2) If any magistrate acting under subsection (1) considers that any finding, sentence or order of the inferior magistrate’s court is illegal or improper, or that any such proceedings are irregular, he or she shall forward the record, with such remarks on it as he or she thinks fit, to the High Court.

(3) In accordance with subsection (2), where a chief magistrate forwards to the High Court the record of a case in which a convicted person is undergoing a sentence of imprisonment which the chief magistrate considers to be illegal or improper, he or she may release that person on bail pending the determination of the High Court.


50. Power of High Court on revision.

(1) In the case of any proceedings in a magistrate’s court the record of which has been called for or which has been reported for orders, or which otherwise comes to its knowledge, when it appears that in those proceedings an error material to the merits of any case or involving a miscarriage of justice has occurred, the High Court may—

(a) in the case of a conviction, exercise any of the powers conferred on it as a court of appeal by sections 34 and 41 and may enhance the sentence;

(b) in the case of any other order, other than an order of acquittal, alter or reverse the order.

(2) No order under this section shall be made unless the Director of Public Prosecutions has had an opportunity of being heard, and no order shall be made to the prejudice of an accused person unless he or she has had an opportunity of being heard either personally or by an advocate in his or her own defence.

(3) Where the sentence dealt with under this section has been passed by a magistrate’s court, the High Court may inflict a greater punishment for the offence, which in the opinion of the High Court the accused has committed, than might have been inflicted by the court which imposed the sentence.

(4) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to authorise the High Court to convert a finding of acquittal into one of conviction; except that when any person is acquitted of the offence with which he or she was charged but is convicted of another offence, whether charged with that other offence or not, the High Court may, if it reverses the finding of conviction, itself convert the finding of acquittal into one of conviction.

(5) Any person aggrieved by any finding, sentence or order made or imposed by a magistrate’s court may petition the High Court to exercise its powers of revision under this section; but no such petition shall be entertained where the petitioner could have appealed against the finding, sentence or order and has not appealed.

(6) In dealing with a case under this section, the High Court may pending the final determination of the case release any convicted person on bail; but if the convicted person is ultimately sentenced to imprisonment, the time he or she has spent on bail shall be excluded in computing the period for which he or she is sentenced.

(7) In dealing with a case under this section, the High Court may, if it thinks fit, call for and receive from the magistrate’s court before which the case was heard a report on any matter connected with the case.

(8) Where an application is made by the Director of Public Prosecutions under subsection (1) to make an order to the prejudice of an accused person, the application shall be lodged with the registrar within thirty days of the imposition of the sentence unless, for good cause shown, the High Court extends the time.


51. Discretion of court as to hearing parties.

Except as provided in section 50, no party has any right to be heard either personally or by advocate before the High Court when exercising its powers of revision; but that court may, if it thinks fit, when exercising those powers hear any party either personally or by advocate, and nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect section 50(2).


52. Number of judges in revision.

All proceedings before the High Court in the exercise of its revisional jurisdiction may be heard and any judgment or order on the proceedings may be made or passed by one judge; but when the court is composed of more than one judge and the court is equally divided in opinion, the sentence or order of the magistrates court shall be upheld.


53. High Court order to be certified to lower court.

When a case is revised by the High Court, it shall certify its decision or order to the court by which the sentence or order revised was recorded or passed, and the court to which the decision or order is certified shall then make such orders as are conformable to the decision certified, and, if necessary, the record shall be amended in accordance with the decision or order.


54. Authority to sign on behalf of Director of Public Prosecutions.

Where an appeal or an application for revision is made by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the notice or application, as the case may be, shall be signed by him or her or by such other person as he or she may authorise either generally or specifically for that purpose.