HIGH COURT PROCEDURE.

No. 5 of 1915.

An Act to amend the High Court Procedure Act 1903.

[Assented to 1st May, 1915.]

BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title, citation, and duration.

1.—(1.)  This Act may be cited as the High Court Procedure Act 1915.

(2.)  The High Court Procedure Act 1903 as amended by the High Court Procedure Amendment Act 1903 and by this Act may be cited as the High Court Procedure Act 1903-1915.

(3.)  This Act shall remain in operation during the present war, and for six months thereafter, and no longer.

2.   The High Court Procedure Act 1903 is amended by inserting after section fifteen the following heading and sections:—

Trial of Indictable Offences.

Trial of indictable offences.

“15a.   The trial by the High Court of indictable offences against the laws of the Commonwealth shall be by a justice with a jury.

Juries.

“15b—(1.)  The laws of each State relating to the qualification of jurors, the preparation of jury lists and jury panels, the summoning, attendance, and impannelling of juries, the number of jurors, the right of challenge, the discharge of juries, the disagreement of jurors, and the remuneration of jurors, for the purposes of the trial of criminal matters pending in the Supreme Court of that State, or relating to any other matters concerning jurors after they have been summoned or sworn, shall extend and be applied to the trial of indictable offences in the High Court in that State, so that the lists of jurors shall be deemed to be made as well for the purposes of the High Court as of the Supreme Court of the State.

“(2.)    But the panel of jurors shall be made out and the jurors shall be summoned by officers of the Commonwealth.

“(3.)  Every officer of a State who has the custody of any jury list shall furnish a copy thereof to the proper officer of the Commonwealth on demand and on payment of a reasonable fee.”