EVIDENCE ACT 1929 - SECT 59F
EVIDENCE ACT 1929 - SECT 59F
59F—Power of South Australian Court to take evidence on request
(1) Where a
foreign court requests an authorised South Australian court to take evidence
in this State for the purpose of proceedings before that foreign court the
South Australian court may summon any person to appear before it for the
purpose of giving evidence or for the purpose of producing documents.
(2) A witness summoned
to appear before an authorised South Australian court under this section may
be examined, cross-examined or re-examined before that court.
(3) Subject to this
Part, the South Australian court in taking evidence under this section shall
have the same powers as if the proceedings originated in that court.
(4) If, while any
person is being examined before an authorised South Australian court,
objection is taken to any question, or to answering any question, the ground
of the objection and the answer (if any) to the question shall be set out in
the deposition of that person.
(5) Subject to
subsections (6) and (7), the validity of the ground of any such objection
shall not be determined by the authorised South Australian court but by the
foreign court at whose request the examination is being conducted.
(6) The authorised
South Australian court may permit a witness to decline to answer a question
where in the opinion of the court the answer to that question might
incriminate him or where it would in the opinion of the court be unfair to the
witness, or to any other person, that the answer should be given and recorded.
(7) A witness cannot
be compelled to give evidence on a particular subject if he or she could not
be compelled to give evidence on that subject in the foreign court from which
the request to take evidence originated.