Courts Act, 1964

Transfer of trials in criminal cases by judges of Circuit Court.

6.—(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) of this section, where a person (in this section referred to as an accused) charged with an indictable offence is sent forward for trial to the Circuit Court, an application by the Attorney General or the accused to the judge of the Circuit Court before whom the accused is triable to have the trial transferred to the Central Criminal Court shall—

(a) in case the party making the application, not less than seven days before making it, notified the accused or the Attorney General, as the case may be, of the application, be granted, and

(b) in any other case, in the discretion of the judge, be either granted or refused, and the decision to grant or refuse the application shall be final and unappealable.

(2) Where—

(a) two or more accused are sent forward for trial to the Circuit Court and it is proposed to try them together, and

(b) an application by one or more, but not all, of the accused under subsection (1) of this section is granted,

an application, without notice to the accused, by the Attorney General to the judge who granted the application aforesaid to have the trial of one or more of the remaining accused transferred to the Central Criminal Court shall be granted.

(3) Where there are less than seven days between the date on which an accused is sent forward for trial and the date of the commencement of the trial, an application under subsection (1) of this section in relation to the trial shall be granted.

(4) Section 54 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , and subsection (8) of section 34 of the Finance Act, 1963 , are hereby repealed.