Commonwealth Numbered Acts

JUDICIARY AMENDMENT ACT 1976 No. 164 of 1976 - SECT 14

14. Section 68 of the Principal Act is amended-

(a) by inserting after the word ''State'' (wherever occurring) the words ''or
Territory''; and

   (b)  by adding at the end thereof the following sub-sections:-

''(5) In relation to offences committed elsewhere than in a State or Territory
(including offences in, over or under any area of the seas that is not part of
a State or Territory), the jurisdiction conferred by sub-section (2) is
conferred notwithstanding any limits as to locality of the jurisdiction of the
court concerned under the law of the State or Territory.
''(6) Where a person who has committed, or is suspected of having committed,
an offence against a law of the Commonwealth, whether in a State or Territory
or elsewhere, is found within an area of waters in respect of which
sovereignty is vested in the Crown in right of the Commonwealth, he may be
arrested in respect of the offence in accordance with the provisions of the
law of any State or Territory that would be applicable to the arrest of the
offender in that State or Territory in respect of such an offence committed in
that State or Territory, and may be brought in custody into any State or
Territory and there dealt with in like manner as if he had been arrested in
that State or Territory.

''(7) The procedure referred to in sub-section (1) and the jurisdiction
referred to in sub-section (2) shall be deemed to include procedure and
jurisdiction in accordance with provisions of a law of a State or Territory
under which a person who, in proceedings before a court of summary
jurisdiction, pleads guilty to a charge for which he could be prosecuted on
indictment may be committed to a court having jurisdiction to try offences on
indictment to be sentenced or otherwise dealt with without being tried in that
court, and the reference in sub-sections (1) and (2) to 'any such trial or
conviction' shall be read as including any conviction or sentencing in
accordance with any such provisions.

''(8) Except as otherwise specifically provided by an Act passed after the
commencement of this sub-section, a person may be dealt with in accordance
with provisions of the kind referred to in sub-section (7) notwithstanding
that, apart from this section, the offence would be required to be prosecuted
on indictment, or would be required to be prosecuted either summarily or on
indictment.

''(9) Where a law of a State or Territory of the kind referred to in
sub-section (7) refers to indictable offences, that reference shall, for the
purposes of the application of the provisions of the law in accordance with
that sub-section, be read as including a reference to an offence against a law
of the Commonwealth that may be prosecuted on indictment.

''(10) Where, in accordance with a procedure of the kind referred to in
sub-section (7), a person is to be sentenced by a court having jurisdiction to
try offences on indictment, that person shall, for the purpose of ascertaining
the sentence that may be imposed, be deemed to have been prosecuted and
convicted on indictment in that court.

''(11) Nothing in this section excludes or limits any power of arrest
conferred by, or any jurisdiction vested or conferred by, any other law,
including an Act passed before the commencement of this sub-section.''.

15. After section 70 of the Principal Act the following section is inserted:-
Indictable offence not committed in a State.
''70A. The trial on indictment of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth
not committed within any State and not being an offence to which section 70
applies may be held in any State or Territory.''.