Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848

Form and contents of warrant.

Execution of warrant.

Certain provisions of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42. as to backing of warrants to extend to warrants issued under this Act.

Objections to warrant for want of form or variance from evidence.

3. Every such warrant to apprehend a defendant, that he may answer to any such information or complaint as aforesaid, shall be under the hand and seal or hands and seals of the justice or justices issuing the same, and may be directed either to any constable or other person by name, or generally to the constable of the parish or other district within which the same is to be executed, without naming him, or to such constable and all other constables within the county or other district within which the justice or justices issuing such warrant hath or have jurisdiction, or generally to all the constables within such last-mentioned county or district, and it shall state shortly the matter of the information or complaint on which it is founded, and shall name or otherwise describe the person against whom it has been issued, and it shall order the constable or other person to whom it is directed to apprehend the said defendant, and to bring him before one or more justice or justices of the peace (as the case may require) of the same county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place, to answer to the said information or complaint, and to be further dealt with according to law; and it shall not be necessary to make such warrant returnable at any particular time, but the same may remain in full force until it shall be executed; and such warrant may be executed by apprehending the defendant at any place within the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place within which the justices issuing the same shall have jurisdiction, or in case of fresh pursuit at any place in the next adjoining county or place, within seven miles of the border of such first-mentioned county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place, without having such warrant backed as herein-after mentioned; and in all cases where such warrant shall be directed to all constables or peace officers within the county or other district within which the justice or justices issuing the same shall have jurisdiction, it shall be lawful for any constable, headborough, tithingman, borsholder, or other peace officer for any parish, township, hamlet, or place, situate within the limits of the jurisdiction for which such justice or justices shall have acted when he or they granted such warrant, to execute such warrant in like manner as if such warrant were directed specially to such constable by name, and notwithstanding that the place in which such warrant shall be executed shall not be within the parish, township, hamlet, or place for which he shall be such constable, headborough, tithingman, borsholder, or other peace officer; and such of the provisions and enactments contained in the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, as to the backing of any warrant, and the indorsement thereon by a justice of the peace or other officer, authorizing the person bringing such warrant, and all other persons to whom the same was originally directed, to execute the same within the jurisdiction of the justice or officer so making such indorsement, as are applicable to the provisions of this Act shall extend to all such warrants, and to all warrants of commitment issued under and by virtue of this Act, in as full and ample a manner as if the said several provisions and enactments were here repeated and made parts of this Act: Provided always, that no objection shall be taken or allowed to any such warrant to apprehend a defendant so issued upon any such information or complaint as aforesaid under or by virtue of this Act, for any alleged defect therein in substance or in form, or for any variance between it and the evidence adduced on the part of the informant or complainant, as herein-after mentioned; but if any such variance shall appear to the justice or justices present and acting at such hearing to be such that the party so apprehended under such warrant has been thereby deceived or misled, it shall be lawful for such justice or justices, upon such terms as he or they shall think fit, to adjourn the hearing of the case to some future day, and in the meantime to commit the said defendant to the house of correction or other prison, lock-up house, or place of security, or to such other custody as the said justice or justices shall think fit, or to discharge him upon his entering into a recognizance with or without surety or sureties, at the discretion of such justice or justices, conditioned for his appearance at the time and place to which such hearing shall be so adjourned: Provided always, that in all cases where a defendant shall be discharged upon recognizance as aforesaid, and shall not afterwards appear at the time and place in such recognizance mentioned, then the said justice who shall have taken the said recognizance, or any justice or justices who may then be there present, upon certifying upon the back of the said recognizance the nonappearance of the defendant, may transmit such recognizance to the clerk of the peace of the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place within which such recognizance shall have been taken, to be proceeded upon in like manner as other recognizances, and such certificate shall be deemed sufficient primâ facie evidence of such nonappearance of the said defendant.