The Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981

Adjournment of committal proceedings to another petty sessions district N.I.

36.—(1) A magistrates' court which adjourns a preliminary investigation or a preliminary inquiry and remands the accused in custody may, if satisfied that it is desirable in the interests of justice or security to do so and that the accused would not thereby suffer hardship, order that the adjourned investigation or, as the case may be, inquiry shall be held at a time and place specified in the order being a place within the same petty sessions district as the prison to which the person charged or any person with whom he is charged in the same proceedings is remanded.

(2) A magistrates' court before which any adjourned investigation or inquiry is held, if satisfied as mentioned in paragraph (1), may, without prejudice to any other power exercisable by it, order that such investigation or, as the case may be, inquiry shall be adjourned to—

(a) a place within the same petty sessions district as that in which the investigation or inquiry was begun; or

(b) a place within the same petty sessions district as the prison to which the person charged or any person with whom he is charged in the same proceedings is further remanded.

(3) Where an order is made under this Article the adjourned investigation or inquiry shall be held at the time and place specified in the order and may be so held before the magistrates' court by whom the investigation or inquiry is adjourned or before a court acting for the petty sessions district in which the place to which the investigation or inquiry is adjourned is situated and where the adjourned investigation or inquiry takes place before such last-mentioned court, the complaint and any depositions and recognizances already taken in, or notices and documents furnished in respect of, the matter shall be deemed for all purposes to have been made or taken by or before, or furnished to the clerk of, such last-mentioned court.

(4) Without prejudice to paragraphs (1) to (3), a magistrates' court may, if satisfied as mentioned in paragraph (1), adjourn any preliminary investigation of, or preliminary inquiry into an indictable offence or any adjourned investigation or inquiry to another magistrates' court having jurisdiction to conduct a preliminary investigation of or, as the case may be, a preliminary inquiry into, such an offence and in the case of an adjourned investigation or inquiry, the complaint and any depositions and recognizances already taken in, or notices and documents furnished in respect of, the matter shall be deemed for all purposes to have been made or taken by or before, or furnished to the clerk of, the last-mentioned court.

(5) Where an investigation or inquiry has been adjourned under this Article, the place to which the investigation or, as the case may be, the inquiry has been adjourned shall, without prejudice to section 7 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945F1 be deemed, for all purposes incidental upon the prosecution, trial and punishment of the offender, to be the place in which the offence was committed.

F1 1945 c. 15 (NI)