Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Cook Islands Sessional Legislation

Commissions of Inquiry Act 1966

COOK ISLANDS

COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY ACT 1966

ANALYSIS

Title
1. Short Title
2. Interpretation
3. High Commissioner may appoint Commissions of Inquiry
4. Members of Commissions protected
5. Commissioner's powers
6. Persons interested entitled to be heard at inquiry
7. Service of Summons
8. Protection of witnesses and counsel
9. Witnesses' allowances
10. Payment of Witnesses' allowances
11. Non-attendance, etc., of witness
12. Reference of point of law to High Court
13. Power to award costs
14. Enforcing orders for costs
15. Powers of Judges when Commissioners
16. Power to make scale of costs
17. Extent of Act
18. Revocation and Savings

---------------------------------

1966, No. 14

An Act to make provision for the appointment of Commissions of Inquiry by the High Commissioner by Order in Executive Council

(25 November 1966

BE IT ENACTED by the Legislative Assembly of the Cook Islands in Session assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. Short Title - This Act may be cited as the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1966.

2. Interpretation - In this Act unless the context otherwise requires:

"Constitution" means the Constitution of the Cook Islands as set out in the Second Schedule to the Cook Islands Constitution Amendment Act 1965;

"High Commissioner" means the High Commissioner of the Cook Islands duly appointed under Article 3 of the Constitution;

"High Court" means the High Court of the Cook Islands appointed under the Constitution;

"Ship" means every description of vessel used in navigation however propelled.

3. High Commissioner may appoint Commissions of Inquiry - The High Commissioner may, by Order in Executive Council, appoint any person or persons to be a Commission to inquire into and report upon any question arising out of or concerning -

(a) The administration of the Government; or

(b) The working of any existing law; or

(c) The necessity or expediency of any legislation; or

(d) The conduct of any officer in the service of the Crown; or

(e) Any disaster or accident including any shipping casualty (whether due to natural causes or otherwise) in which members of the public were killed or injured or were or might have been exposed to risk of death or injury.

(2) For the purpose of paragraph (e) of subsection (1) of this section a shipping casualty shall be deemed to occur -

(a) When on or near the coasts of any island of the Cook Islands any ship is lost, abandoned, stranded or materially damaged or has been in collision with any ship; or

(b) When any loss of life ensues by reason of any casualty occurring to any ship on or near the coasts of any island of the Cook Islands; or

(c) When in any place any such loss, abandonment, stranding, material damage, or casualty as aforesaid occurs, and any witness is found in the Cook Islands; or

(d) When in any place any such loss, abandonment, stranding, material damage, or casualty as aforesaid occurs or is supposed to have occurred to any ship registered in the Cook Islands pursuant to the provisions of any law made in that behalf and for the time being in force; or

(e) When any ship proceeds to sea from any harbour in the Cook Islands and is lost or is supposed to have been lost and any evidence is obtainable in the Cook Islands as to the circumstances under which she proceeded to sea or was last heard of.

4. Members of Commissions protected - So long as any member of any such Commission acts bona fide in the discharge of his duties, no action shall lie against him for anything he may report or say in the course of the inquiry.

5. Commissioners' powers - Every such Commission shall for the purpose of the inquiry have the power and status of a Judge of the High Court in respect of citing parties interested in the inquiry, summoning witnesses, administering oaths, hearing evidence, and conducting and maintaining order at the inquiry.

6. Persons interested entitled to be heard at inquiry - Any person interested in the inquiry shall, if he satisfies the Commission that he has an interest in the inquiry apart from any interest in common with the public, be entitled to appear and be heard at the inquiry as if he had been cited as a party to the inquiry.

7. Service of Summons - Every summons to a witness shall be served either by delivering the same to the person summoned or by leaving the same at his usual place of abode within a reasonable time before his attendance is required.

8. Protection of witnesses and counsel - Every witness attending and giving evidence in pursuance of any such summons, and every counsel appearing before any Commission, shall have the same privileges and immunities as witnesses and counsel in the High Court.

9. Witnesses' allowances - Every witness attending in pursuance of any such summons shall be entitled to expenses for travelling and maintenance during his absence from his usual place of abode according to the scale allowed to witnesses in civil cases by the rules of the High Court 1916:

Provided that persons prosecuting any claim before a Commission shall not be entitled to be paid any moneys under this section.

10. Payment of witnesses' allowances - (1) Where the Commission has obtained the authority in writing of the Minister of Justice for summoning any witness, the expenses of that witness shall, if certified by the Chairman of the Commission be paid by the Minister of Finance out of the Government Account.

(2) In every other case the person requiring the evidence of any witness shall, before the summons is issued, deposit with the Commission such sum of money as the Commission deems sufficient, and the expenses of the witness shall be paid out of the sum so deposited.

11. Non-attendance, etc., of witness - Every person who, after being duly summoned to attend before the Commission, or to produce thereto any books, papers, writings or documents -

(a) Fails to appear according to the exigency of such summons; or

(b) Refuses to be sworn or to give evidence, or to make answer to such questions as may be put to him by the Commission or any member thereof touching the subject of the inquiry; or

(c) Fails to produce any such books, papers, writings, or documents,

is liable for every such default to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds:

Provided that no person so summoned shall be liable to any such fine unless at the time of the service of the summons there was made to him a payment or a tender of his travelling expenses, according to the scale allowed to witnesses in civil cases by the rules of the High Court 1916:

Provided also that no person so summoned shall be bound to appear according to the exigency of the summons if, in order to appear, he would have to travel more than two hundred miles, by the usual way, from his usual place of abode to the place where he is summoned to appear.

12. Reference of point of law to High Court - (1) The Commission may refer any disputed point of law arising in the course of an inquiry to the High Court for decision, and for this purpose may either conclude the inquiry subject to such decision or may at any stage of the inquiry adjourn it until after the decision has been given.

(2) The question shall be in the form of a special case to be drawn up by the parties (if any) to the inquiry, and, if the parties do not agree or if there are no parties, to be settled by the Commission.

(3) The decision of the High Court shall be final and binding upon all parties to the inquiry and upon the Commission.

13. Power to award costs - The Commission, upon the hearing of an inquiry, may order that the whole or any portion of the costs of the inquiry or of any party thereto shall be paid by any of the parties to the inquiry, or by all or any of the persons who have procured the inquiry to be held:

Provided that no such order shall be made against any person who has not been cited as a party or authorised by the Commission, pursuant to section 6 of this Act, to appear and be heard at the inquiry or summoned to attend and give evidence at the inquiry.

14. Enforcing orders for costs - For the purpose of enforcing any order of the Commission for the payment of costs, a duplicate of such order may be filed by the person to whom the costs are payable in any office of the High Court and shall thereupon be enforceable in all respects as a final judgment of that Court in its civil jurisdiction.

15. Powers of Judges when Commissioners - (1) In every case where under this Act, or any other Act for the time being in force in the Cook Islands, the High Commissioner or the High Commissioner in Executive Council appoints one or more Judges of the High Court to be members of a Commission for the purpose of holding any inquiry, every such Judge, and the Commission of which he is a member, shall, for all the purposes of such inquiry, have the same powers, privileges and immunities as are possessed by a Judge of the High Court in the exercise of its civil jurisdiction under the Constitution.

(2) For the purpose of enforcing any order made by such Commission the order shall, as soon as conveniently may be after the making thereof, be drawn up and signed by the Chairman (whose signature and status shall be judicially noticed), and may be filed in any office of the High Court, whereupon the order shall be enforceable in the same manner as a final judgment of that Court in civil proceedings.

(3) In the case of every such Commission section 12 of this Act shall be read as if the words "Supreme Court of New Zealand" were substituted for the words "High Court".

16. Power to make scale of costs - The High Commissioner by Order in Executive Council may from time to time make rules prescribing a scale of costs payable in respect of any inquiry under this Act.

17. Extent of Act - This Act shall extend and apply to all inquiries held by Commissioners appointed by the High Commissioner or the High Commissioner by Order in Executive Council under any Act for the time being in force in the Cook Islands.

18. Revocation and Savings - (1) The Cook Islands Commissions of Inquiry Regulations 1958 are hereby revoked.

(2) Without limiting the provisions of the Acts Interpretation Act 1924 as amended and applied to the Cook Islands it is hereby declared that the revocation of any provision by this Act shall not affect any document made or any thing whatsoever done under any provision so revoked or under any corresponding former provision and every such document, or thing so far as it is subsisting or in force at the time of the revocation and could have been made or done under this Act shall continue and have effect as if it had been made or done under any corresponding prevision of this Act and as if that provision had been in force when the document was made or the thing was done.

-------------------------------