68Jurisdiction of State and Territory courts in criminal cases

#### 68 Jurisdiction of State and Territory courts in criminal cases (1) The laws of a State or Territory respecting the arrest and custody of offenders or persons charged with offences, and the procedure for: (a) their summary conviction; and (b) their examination and commitment for trial on indictment; and (c) their trial and conviction on indictment; and (d) the hearing and determination of appeals arising out of any such trial or conviction or out of any proceedings connected therewith; and for holding accused persons to bail, shall, subject to this section, apply and be applied so far as they are applicable to persons who are charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth in respect of whom jurisdiction is conferred on the several courts of that State or Territory by this section. (2) The several Courts of a State or Territory exercising jurisdiction with respect to: (a) the summary conviction; or (b) the examination and commitment for trial on indictment; or (c) the trial and conviction on indictment; of offenders or persons charged with offences against the laws of the State or Territory, and with respect to the hearing and determination of appeals arising out of any such trial or conviction or out of any proceedings connected therewith, shall, subject to this section and to section 80 of the Constitution, have the like jurisdiction with respect to persons who are charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth. (4) The several Courts of a State or Territory exercising the jurisdiction conferred upon them by this section shall, upon application being made in that behalf, have power to order, upon such terms as they think fit, that any information laid before them in respect of an offence against the laws of the Commonwealth shall be amended so as to remove any defect either in form or substance contained in that information. (5) Subject to subsection (5A): (a) the jurisdiction conferred on a court of a State or Territory by subsection (2) in relation to the summary conviction of persons charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth; and (b) the jurisdiction conferred on a court of a State or Territory by virtue of subsection (7) in relation to the conviction and sentencing of persons charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth in accordance with a provision of the law of that State or Territory of the kind referred to in subsection (7); is conferred notwithstanding any limits as to locality of the jurisdiction of that court under the law of that State or Territory. (5A) A court of a State on which jurisdiction in relation to the summary conviction of persons charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth is conferred by subsection (2) may, where it is satisfied that it is appropriate to do so, having regard to all the circumstances, including the public interest, decline to exercise that jurisdiction in relation to an offence against a law of the Commonwealth committed in another State. (5B) In subsection (5A), State includes Territory. (5C) The jurisdiction conferred on a court of a State or Territory by subsection (2) in relation to: (a) the examination and commitment for trial on indictment; and (b) the trial and conviction on indictment; of persons charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth, being offences committed elsewhere than in a State or Territory (including offences in, over or under any area of the seas that is not part of a State or Territory), is conferred notwithstanding any limits as to locality of the jurisdiction of that court under the law of that State or Territory. (6) Where a person who has committed, or is suspected of having committed, an offence against a law of the Commonwealth, whether in a State or Territory or elsewhere, is found within an area of waters in respect of which sovereignty is vested in the Crown in right of the Commonwealth, he or she may be arrested in respect of the offence in accordance with the provisions of the law of any State or Territory that would be applicable to the arrest of the offender in that State or Territory in respect of such an offence committed in that State or Territory, and may be brought in custody into any State or Territory and there dealt with in like manner as if he or she had been arrested in that State or Territory. (7) The procedure referred to in subsection (1) and the jurisdiction referred to in subsection (2) shall be deemed to include procedure and jurisdiction in accordance with provisions of a law of a State or Territory under which a person who, in proceedings before a court of summary jurisdiction, pleads guilty to a charge for which he or she could be prosecuted on indictment may be committed to a court having jurisdiction to try offences on indictment to be sentenced or otherwise dealt with without being tried in that court, and the reference in subsections (1) and (2) to any such trial or conviction shall be read as including any conviction or sentencing in accordance with any such provisions. (8) Except as otherwise specifically provided by an Act passed after the commencement of this subsection, a person may be dealt with in accordance with provisions of the kind referred to in subsection (7) notwithstanding that, apart from this section, the offence would be required to be prosecuted on indictment, or would be required to be prosecuted either summarily or on indictment. (9) Where a law of a State or Territory of the kind referred to in subsection (7) refers to indictable offences, that reference shall, for the purposes of the application of the provisions of the law in accordance with that subsection, be read as including a reference to an offence against a law of the Commonwealth that may be prosecuted on indictment. (10) Where, in accordance with a procedure of the kind referred to in subsection (7), a person is to be sentenced by a court having jurisdiction to try offences on indictment, that person shall, for the purpose of ascertaining the sentence that may be imposed, be deemed to have been prosecuted and convicted on indictment in that court. (11) Nothing in this section excludes or limits any power of arrest conferred by, or any jurisdiction vested or conferred by, any other law, including an Act passed before the commencement of this subsection.