Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts(1) Subject to this section, a document or record shall not be disclosed in or in relation to, or be admissible as evidence in, legal proceedings if:
(a) it appears to the person presiding in the Court before which the legal proceedings are held or taken that it is of a kind in respect of which a certificate under section 42D(1) could be given if the Attorney-General were of the opinion that its disclosure in the legal proceedings is not in the public interest; and
(b) the Attorney-General has not had an opportunity to give a certificate under section 42D(1) in relation to it.
(2) A statement by a person called upon to produce a document or record in or in relation to legal proceedings that:
(a) the document or record is of a kind referred to in subsection (1)(a); and
(b) in respect of that document or record the Attorney-General has not had an opportunity to give a certificate under section 42D(1),
shall be accepted by the person presiding in the Court before which the legal proceedings are held or taken as conclusive of that first-mentioned fact and prima facie evidence of the second-mentioned fact.
(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to a document or record the publication of which has previously been duly authorized.
(4) Subject to subsection (2), subsection (1) does not prevent a document or record from being disclosed in or in relation to legal proceedings so far only as the disclosure is made to the person presiding in the Court before which those legal proceedings are held or taken and is necessary to enable the person to decide whether the document or record is of a kind referred to in subsection (1)(a) and, if so, whether or not it is a document or record referred to in subsection (3).
(5) The practice and procedure of a Court for or in respect of the giving to the Attorney-General of notice relating to the disclosure of a document or record in or in relation to legal proceedings shall be:
(a) where there is a power to make rules of court for or in respect of the practice and procedure of that Court and such rules are in force – in accordance with those rules of court; and
(b) where there is no such power or the power has not been exercised – in accordance with the Regulations.
(6) The Administrator may make regulations for the purposes of subsection (5)(b).