PART I – GENERAL PROVISIONS PROCEDURE
PRESERVATION OF TESTIMONY IN CERTAIN CASE
61. Whenever it appears to any Court that any person dangerously ill or hurt, and not likely to recover, is able and willing to give material information relating to any offence, and it shall not be practicable to take the depositions of the person so ill or hurt . in accordance with the provisions of Part III in relation to preliminary investigation, the Court may take in writing the statement on oath or affirmation of such person, and shall subscribe the same, and certify that it contains accurately the whole of the statement made by such person, and shall add a statement of the reason for taking the same, and of the date and place when and where the same was taken, and shall preserve such statement and file it for record.
62. If the statement taken in writing under section 61 relates or is expected to relate to an offence for which any person is under a charge or committal for trial, reasonable notice of the intention to take the same shall be served upon the prosecutor and accused, and if the accused is in custody, he shall be brought by the person in whose charge he is, under an order in writing of the Court, to the place where the statement is to be taken.
63. Where such statement relates to an offence for which any person is then or subsequently committed for trial, it shall be transmitted to the Court in which such person is to be tried, and a copy thereof shall be transmitted to the Attorney-General.
64. (1) Such statement so taken may afterwards be used in evidence on the trial of any person accused of an offence to which the same relates, if the person who made the statement be dead, or the court is satisfied that for any sufficient cause his attendance cannot be procured, and if reasonable notice of the intention to take such statement was served upon the person against whom it is to be read in evidence and he had or might have had, if he had chosen to be present, full opportunity of cross-examining the person making the same.
(2) The signature and attestation of the Judge or Magistrate by whom such statement was taken shall be sufficient prima facie proof of any statement, and that the same was taken in all respects according to law, and such attestation and signature shall be admitted without proof unless the Court shall see reason to doubt the genuineness thereof.
DEPOSITION AND STATEMENTS
65. Where any person has been committed for trial for any offence, the deposition of any person taken before the committing Magistrate may, if the conditions hereinafter set out are satisfied, without further proof be read as evidence on the trial of that person, whether for that offence or for any other offence arising out of the same transaction, or set or circumstances, as that offence. The conditions hereinbefore referred to are the following —
a. the deposition must be the deposition of a witness whose attendance at the trial is stated to be unnecessary in accordance with the provisions of section 127, or of a witness who cannot be found, or whose attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which in the circumstances of the case, the court considers unreasonable, or who is proved at the trial by the oath of a credible witness to be dead or insane, or so ill as not to be able to travel, or to be kept out of the way by means of the procurement of the accused or on his behalf ;
b. it must be proved at the trial either by a certificate purporting to be signed by the Magistrate before whom the deposition purports to have been taken or by the clerk to such Magistrate, that the deposition was taken in the presence of the accused and that the accused or his advocate had full opportunity of cross-examining the witness ;
c. the deposition must purport to be signed by the Magistrate before whom it purports to have been taken :
Provided that the provisions of this section shall not have effect in any case in which it is proved—
i. that the deposition, or, where the proof required by paragraph (b) is given by means of a certificate, that the certificate was not in fact signed by the Magistrate by whom it purports to have been signed ; or
ii. where the deposition is that of a witness whose attendance at the trial is stated to be unnecessary as aforesaid, that the witness has been duly notified that he is required to attend the trial.
Procedure for witness testimony - national proceedings
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