An Ordinance to establish a Supreme Court of the Territory, and for other purposes
Part I—Preliminary
1 Short title
This Ordinance may be cited as the Supreme Court Ordinance 1955.
2 Definitions
In this Ordinance, unless the contrary intention appears:
additional judge means a judge appointed under subsection (2) of section five of this Ordinance.
cause includes any suit and any criminal proceeding.
matter includes any proceeding in the Supreme Court, whether between parties or not, and any incidental proceeding in a cause or matter.
suit includes any action or original proceeding of a civil nature between parties.
the Court means the Supreme Court.
the judge includes the judge appointed under subsection (1) of section five of this Ordinance or an additional judge.
the Supreme Court means the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance.
Part II—Constitution and Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
Division 1—Constitution
4 Establishment and constitution of Supreme Court
There shall be a Supreme Court of the Territory, which:
(a) shall be known as the Supreme Court of the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands;
(b) shall be a superior court of records; and
(c) shall consist of one judge appointed under subsection (1) of the next succeeding section and an additional judge or judges appointed under subsection (2) of that section.
5 Appointment of Judge and additional Judges
(1) The Governor‑General may appoint, by Commission under the Great Seal of Australia, a person who is a Judge of any other court created by the Parliament to be a Judge of the Supreme Court.
(2) The Governor‑General may appoint, by Commission under the Great Seal of Australia, a person or persons who, or each of whom, is a Judge of a court created by the Parliament to be an additional Judge or additional Judges of the Supreme Court.
(3) The Judges appointed under subsection (2) have seniority as additional Judges according to the dates of their commissions.
(4) The person who holds office as an additional Judge of the Supreme Court immediately before the commencement of this section shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance, be deemed:
(a) to have been appointed as an additional Judge under subsection (2); and
(b) to be the senior additional Judge under subsection (3).
5A Exercise of jurisdiction
(1) The judge appointed under subsection (1) of the last preceding section may, from time to time, make arrangements as to which judge is to exercise the jurisdiction of the Court.
(2) Where:
(a) the judge appointed under subsection (1) of the last preceding section is, by reason of absence or for any other reason, unable to discharge the duties of his office, or there is no judge holding office by virtue of an appointment under that subsection; and
(b) there are two or more additional judges of the Court;
the senior additional judge may, from time to time, make arrangements as to which the additional judges is to exercise the jurisdiction of the Court.
6 Remuneration of Judges
The Judge appointed under subsection 5(1), or an additional Judge appointed or to be deemed to have been appointed under subsection 5(2), shall be remunerated with the salary and allowances that he receives as a Judge of the other court or other courts of which he is a Judge.
7 Ceasing to hold office
The Judge appointed under subsection 5(1), or an additional Judge appointed or to be deemed to have been appointed under subsection 5(2), shall cease to hold office if he ceases to hold office as a Judge (other than an additional Judge) of any other court created by the Parliament.
8 Oath of allegiance and office by judge
Each judge, other than the judge referred to in subsection (4) of section five of this Ordinance, shall, before proceeding to discharge the duties of his office, make and subscribe before the Governor‑General or a person authorized for the purpose by the Governor‑General an oath or affirmation in the form in the Schedule to this Ordinance.
Division 2—Jurisdiction
9 Jurisdiction of Supreme Court
Subject to this Ordinance, the Supreme Court has, in all matters arising under a law of the Territory, and generally in relation to the Territory:
(a) the same original jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, as the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory had in relation to the Australian Capital Territory immediately before the commencement of this Ordinance;
(b) jurisdiction, with such exceptions and subject to such conditions as are provided by the laws of the Territory, to hear and determine:
(i) appeals from judgments, orders, convictions and sentences of a District Court or Magistrate’s Court; and
(ii) points of law reserved by special cases submitted by a District Court or Magistrate’s Court; and
(c) such other jurisdiction, whether civil or criminal and whether original or appellate, as is conferred on the Supreme Court, or a Court referred to in section fourteen of this Ordinance, by a law of the Territory.
10 Costs
(1) The Supreme Court and the judge sitting in chambers have jurisdiction to award costs in all matters brought before the Court, including matters dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
(2) Subject to rules of court, the costs of and incidental to proceedings in the Supreme Court, including the administration of estates and trusts, shall be in the discretion of the Court or judge, and the Court or judge has power to determine by whom and to what extent the costs are to be paid.
(3) Nothing in this section affects the practice which would otherwise be followed in a criminal cause or matter or in proceedings on the Crown side of the Court.
11 Exercise of jurisdiction of Supreme Court
(1) The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court may be exercised:
(a) by the judge sitting in court; and
(b) to the extent provided by this or any other Ordinance, or by rules of court, and in all matters of practice or procedure—by the judge sitting in chambers.
(2) The judge may order a matter that is brought before him in chambers to be adjourned into Court and heard in open Court.
(3) The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court exercisable by the judge sitting in chambers may be so exercised in the Territory or at any place in the Commonwealth.
12 Court to sit without jury
(1) Notwithstanding any other law in force in the Territory, all civil proceedings before the Supreme Court shall be heard and determined by the Court sitting without a jury.
(2) A provision in a law of the Territory providing for, or relating to:
(a) trial by jury; or
(b) the empanelling of a jury;
does not apply to civil proceedings in the Territory.
(3) A reference in a law of the Territory to the verdict of a jury shall, in relation to civil proceedings, be read as a reference to the judgment of the Court.
13 Pending proceedings
Proceedings (including appeals), whether civil or criminal, pending immediately before the commencement of the Act in the Supreme Court of the Colony of Singapore or in the Court of Criminal Appeal of that Colony by virtue of any jurisdiction of that Court in or in relation to the Islands may be carried on or concluded in that Court, and the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance shall be deemed not to have jurisdiction in relation to those proceedings.
14 References to Supreme Court etc in existing laws
(1) A reference in a law continued in force in the Territory by section eight of the Act to:
(a) the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements or the High Court or Court of Appeal being part of that Supreme Court;
(b) the Supreme Court of the Colony of Singapore or the High Court or Court of Appeal being part of that Supreme Court; or
(c) the Court of Criminal Appeal of the Straits Settlements or of the Colony of Singapore;
shall be read as a reference to the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance, and a reference in any such law to the Chief Justice, a judge or two or more judges of any such Court shall be read as a reference to the judge of the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance.
(2) A reference in any such law to the Registrar or other officer of a Court referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of the last preceding subsection shall be read as a reference to the Registrar, or corresponding officer, of the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance.
(3) A reference in any such law to an Assizes of the High Court of the Straits Settlements or of the Colony of Singapore shall be read as a reference to a sitting of the Supreme Court established by this Ordinance.
15 Practice and procedure
(1) Subject to this Ordinance and to rules of court made under this Ordinance, and except as otherwise directed by the Supreme Court at any stage of the matter, the practice and procedure in and in relation to a matter in the Supreme Court shall be the practice and procedure provided by law in relation to matters of that kind in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory immediately before the commencement of this Ordinance.
(2) In this section, practice and procedure includes matters relating to:
(a) the attendance of witnesses;
(b) the custody or bail of accused or convicted persons; and
(c) the enforcement and execution of judgments, orders, decrees, convictions and sentences.
Part III—Administration
16 Principal seat and sittings
(1) The principal seat of the Supreme Court shall be at West Island.
(2) Sittings of the Supreme Court shall be held at the principal seat from time to time as is necessary and at such places other than the principal seat as the judge thinks fit.
(3) The Supreme Court may, at any stage of a proceeding, order that the proceeding be continued at a place and time specified in the order, and may from time to time vary any such order.
(4) Sittings of the Supreme Court may be held at a place in Australia outside the Territory for the purpose of hearing and determining a matter, otherwise than in the exercise of its criminal jurisdiction, if the Court is satisfied that the hearing of the matter outside the Territory is not contrary to the interests of justice.
17 Registries
The Minister may establish such registries of the Supreme Court, either within the Territory or at places in Australia outside the Territory, as he thinks fit and shall notify the establishment of any such registry in the Gazette.
18 Registrar and other officers
(1) The Minister may appoint a Registrar, a Sheriff and such Deputy Registrars, Deputy Sheriffs and other officers of the Supreme Court as are necessary.
(2) A Deputy Registrar has and may exercise all the powers, and may perform all the functions, of the Registrar.
(3) Where a power or duty is conferred or imposed by law, including subsection (2), on a Deputy Registrar, that Deputy Registrar may exercise that power or perform that duty either within the Territory or at a place in Australia outside the Territory.
18A Sheriff of the Territory
(1) Where the Minister does not appoint a Sheriff of the Territory under section 18, the Sheriff of the Australian Capital Territory shall be the Sheriff of the Territory.
(2) The Sheriff:
(a) is charged with the service and execution of all writs, orders, warrants, precepts, process and commands of the Court that are directed to the Sheriff; and
(b) shall take, receive and detain all persons who are committed to the custody of the Sheriff by the Court, and shall discharge all such persons when directed by the Court or otherwise required by law.
(3) A Deputy Sheriff may, subject to any directions of the Sheriff, exercise or perform any of the powers and functions of the Sheriff.
(4) The Sheriff or a Deputy Sheriff may authorise such persons as he or she thinks fit to assist him or her in the exercise of any power or the performance of any function.
(5) When the Sheriff or a Deputy Sheriff is a party to a cause in the Court, all writs, summonses, orders, warrants, precepts, process and commands in the cause which should in the ordinary course be directed to him or her shall be directed to such disinterested person as the Court or the Judge appoints, and the person so appointed may execute and return them.
19 Seal
(1) The Supreme Court shall have a seal of the Court for sealing writs and other instruments or documents issued out of the Court and requiring to be sealed.
(2) The Court shall also, for the purposes of authentication, have a seal or stamp with which summonses, office copies, certificates, reports and other documents requiring authentication may be sealed or stamped.
Part IV—Miscellaneous
21 Informations before Supreme Court
(1) A person committed for trial for an offence triable by the Supreme Court may be put upon his trial before that Court by information in the name of the Attorney‑General of the Commonwealth or the Director of Public Prosecutions.
(2) The Director of Public Prosecutions has, in relation to persons committed for trial before the Supreme Court, the same powers as the Attorney‑General of the Commonwealth had, in relation to persons committed for trial before the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, immediately before the commencement of this Ordinance.
22 Commissioners for affidavits
The judge may, by commission under the seal of the Court, authorize as many persons as he thinks necessary to take and receive affidavits concerning a matter within the jurisdiction of the Court.
23 Rules of court
The judge of the Supreme Court may make rules of court for regulating the practice and procedure of the Court, and for prescribing all matters and things which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Ordinance or for the conduct of any business of the Court.