Part III Legal Proceedings
Power to except innocent act from being illegal practice, payment, employment or hiring
167 Application for relief.
(1)
An application for relief under this section may be made to the High Court or an election court or else, if in respect of a payment made in contravention of section 78(1) or (2) above, or of paragraph 1 of Schedule 4 to this Act, to a county court.
F1(1A)
Where a person makes an application under this section he shall notify the Director of Public Prosecutions of the application and the Director or his assistant or representative may attend the hearing of the application and make representations at the hearing in respect of it.
(2)
If it is shown to the court by such evidence as to the court seems sufficient—
(a)
that any act or omission of any person would apart from this section by reason of being in contravention of this Act be an illegal practice, payment, employment or hiring,
(b)
that the act or omission arose from inadvertence or from accidental miscalculation or from some other reasonable cause of a like nature, and in any case did not arise from any want of good faith, and
(c)
that such notice of the application has been given in the constituency or, as the case may be, the area of the authority for which the election was held, as to the court seems fit,
and under the circumstances it seems to the court to be just that either that or any other person should not be subject to any of the consequences under this Act of the act or omission, the court may make an order allowing the act or omission to be an exception from the provisions of this Act making it an illegal practice, payment, employment or hiring and upon the making of the order no person shall be subject to any of the consequences under this Act of that act or omission.
(3)
In relation to an election of councillors in Scotland, the references in subsection (1) to applications to the High Court or a county court shall be omitted.
F2(4)
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F3(5)
Article 60 of the County Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 (appeals from county courts) shall apply in relation to any order of a county court in Northern Ireland made by virtue of this section as it applies in relation to any such decree of a county court as is mentioned in paragraph (1) of that Article.