MAGISTRATES COURT ACT 2004 - SECT 15
MAGISTRATES COURT ACT 2004 - SECT 15
15 . Contempts of Court
(1) A person is guilty
of a contempt of the Court if the person —
(a)
while the Court is sitting, wilfully —
(i)
interrupts the proceedings;
(ii)
misbehaves before the Court;
(iii)
insults a person constituting the Court;
(b)
wilfully insults or obstructs —
(i)
a person going to a courtroom for the purpose of
constituting the Court;
(ii)
a person leaving a courtroom having constituted the
Court;
(c) when
required by the Court to take an oath or affirmation, does not do so;
(d) when
required by the Court to give evidence that the person is competent and
compellable to give, does not do so;
(e) does
not, in the face of the Court, comply with a lawful direction of the Court.
(2) A person who
—
(a)
having been served with a summons to attend as a witness, without reasonable
excuse, does not attend as required by the summons; or
(b)
having been required by the Court to produce a record or thing to the Court,
without reasonable excuse, does not do so,
is guilty of a
contempt of court unless the omission is an offence.
(3) A person is guilty
of a contempt of the Court if —
(a) the
Court makes a lawful order ordering a person to do an act (other than to pay
money) or to cease (temporarily or permanently) doing an act; and
(b) the
person, without reasonable excuse, does not comply with the order; and
(c)
another written law does not provide a means for punishing non-compliance with
or enforcing the order.
(4) This section
applies in relation to an act or omission by a person outside the State as if
it were an act or omission by the person in the State.
[Section 15 amended: No. 7 of 2008 s. 156.]