Date:

04/22/1998

PRACTICE NOTE No 98



Direction under s.16A of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986




1 I direct prosecuting authorities to present all indictments after 1 July 1998 in the District Court rather than in the Supreme Court, except for indictments relating to offences under any of the following sections:


(a) sections 12, 19A, 21, 22A and 24 of the Crimes Act 1900;

(b) sections 24, 24AA, 24AB and 78 of the Crimes Act 1914 of the Commonwealth;

(c) section 9 of the War Crimes Act 1945 of the Commonwealth;

(d) section 7 of the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 of the Commonwealth;

(e) section 8 of the Crimes (Internationally Protected Persons) Act 1976 of the Commonwealth.

2 It will be noted that, by reason of Regulation 4 of the Criminal Procedure Regulation 1995, the District Court currently does not have jurisdiction in respect of sections 12 and 19A of the Crimes Act 1900.

3 Subject to the usual practice as to joinder of counts, an indictment charging an offence under any of the above sections may also contain counts charging other offences.







4 Applications for exemption under section 16A(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 should be made by letter addressed to the Chief Justice setting out a brief description of the nature of the case and identifying the basis upon which it is claimed that it is an appropriate case to be tried in the Supreme Court. Matters that involve particular difficulty, or that are test cases or in which there is particular public significance, will ordinarily be given an exemption.


Chief Justice

22 April 1998