Section 353 — Crimes Act 1961: Record of proceedings

353 Record of proceedings (1) It shall not in any case be necessary to draw up any formal record of the proceedings on a trial for crime; but the Registrar of the Court before which the trial takes place shall cause to be preserved all indictments and all depositions transmitted to him. He shall keep a book to be called the Crown Book, which shall be the property of the Court and shall be deemed a record thereof, and its contents shall be provable by a certified copy or extract without production of the original. (2) The Registrar shall cause to be entered in the Crown Book a statement of the following particulars: (a) The name or names of the committing District Court Judge or Justices or Community Magistrate or Community Magistrates, and the charge on which the accused was committed, or, if the accused was not committed, the name of the prosecutor: (b) If the indictment is filed by leave, the name of the Court or other authority granting such leave: Provided that the absence of such a statement, or any mistake therein, shall not be a ground of objection to the proceedings; but the Court to which the Crown Book belongs may, and shall on the application at any time of either the prosecutor or the accused, order a statement of those particulars to be entered, or amend the statement where it is erroneous or defective. (3) In the Crown Book there shall also be entered the name of the Judge of the Court, and a memorandum of the substance of all proceedings at every trial and of the result of every trial. (4) Such entries, or a certified copy thereof or of so much thereof as is material, may be referred to in any proceeding by way of appeal. (5) A certificate of any indictment, trial, conviction, or acquittal, or of the substance thereof, made up from the memorandum in the Crown Book, shall be received in evidence for the same purpose and to the same extent as certificates of records, or the substantial parts thereof, are receivable. (6) Any erroneous or defective entry in the Crown Book may at any time be amended by the Judge who presided at the trial or, if that Judge is not available, by any Judge. (7) If the trial takes place before any Court other than that to which the accused was committed for trial, or before which the indictment was filed, a statement shall be made in the Crown Book of the order under which the trial is held, and by whom or where it was made. (8) Nothing in this section shall dispense with the taking of notes by the Judge presiding at the trial. Compare: 1908 No 32 s 414 Subsection (2)(a) was amended, as from 1 April 1980, pursuant to section 18 District Courts Amendment Act 1979 (1979 No 125) by substituting the words “ District Court Judge ” for the word “ Magistrate ” . Subsection (2)(a) was amended, as from 30 June 1998, by section 6 Crimes Amendment Act (No 2) 1998 (1998 No 79) by inserting the words “ or Community Magistrate or Community Magistrates ” . Subsections (2)(b) and (7) were amended, as from 1 March 1996, by section 4(1) Crimes Amendment Act (No 2) 1995 (1995 No 68) by substituting the word “ filed ” for the word “ presented ” . See clause 2 Crimes Amendment Act Commencement Order 1996 (SR 1996/1).