INQUESTS

CHAPTER 4:02
INQUESTS

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

    SECTION

PART I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

    1.    Short title

    2.    Interpretation

    3.    Who may hold inquests

    4.    When inquest to be held

        Power to dispense with inquest in certain cases

    5.    Power to order exhumation

    6.    Inquest on all prisoners and on patients in mental hospitals

    7.    Inquest to be held by coroner of place where body lying

    8.    Inquest where body destroyed or irrecoverable

    9.    Coroner may prohibit burial or cremation till after inquest

    10.    Notice of death

    11.    Duty of police officer or Chief

    11A.    Coroner may call for statement recorded by police

PART II
POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION

    12.    Coroner may direct post-mortem examinations

    13.    Medical practitioner to make an examination and report

PART III
PROCEDURE AT INQUEST

    14.    Inquiries to be made by coroner

    15.    Provisions regarding the viewing of body

    16.    Coroner may summon witnesses

    17.    Coroner not bound by rules of evidence

    18.    Evidence how recorded

    18A.    Statements recorded by police may be admitted as evidence in inquest

    19.    Power to take evidence of witnesses unable to attend

    20.    Inquest on Sunday, etc., or in private

    21.    Adjournment of inquest

    22.    Staying of inquest and its resumption

    23.    Issue of summons or warrant

    24.    The inquisition

    25.    Where guilty party unknown

    26.    Where guilty party cannot be found

    27.    Return of inqusitions

    28.    Powers of High Court

PART IV
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

    29.    Penalty where body is buried without authority

    30.    Obstructing medical officer, etc.

    31.    Power to make Rules

    32.    Forms

        First Schedule

        Forms

        Second Schedule

        Inquests (Post-Mortem Fees) Rules

CHAPTER 4:02
INQUESTS

9 of 1948
8 of 1949
14 of 1951
8 of 1963
59 of 1966
25 of 1968
5 of 1971
51 of 1971

    An Act relating to Inquests

PART I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

G.N. 22/1963

219/1964 (N)

166/1967

GENERAL PROVISIONS

1.    Short title

    This Act may be cited as the Inquests Act.

2.    Interpretation

    In this Act—

    “coroner” means any person empowered to hold inquests under this Act;

    “medical practitioner” means any person registered or licensed as a medical practitioner under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Registration Act;

    “police officer in charge of a police station” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 2 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code.

3.    Who may hold inquests

    (1) Every magistrate may hold inquests under this Act.

    (2) The Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, empower any other fit person or class of fit persons to hold inquests under this Act within any area specified in such notice.

    (3) Any inquest commenced by a coroner may be continued, resumed, or reopened in the manner provided by this Act by such coroner or by his successor in office.

4.    When inquest to be held

    Whenever a coroner is credibly informed that the body of a deceased person is lying within his jurisdiction, and that there is reasonable cause to suspect that such person had died either a violent or an unnatural death, or in prison or in custody, or in a mental hospital, or in any place or circumstances which, in the opinion of the coroner, makes the holding of an inquest necessary or desirable, such coroner shall, subject as hereinafter in this section provided, hold an inquest on such body as soon as practicable:

Power to dispense with inquest in certain cases

    Provided that—

    (a)    whenever it shall appear to the coroner, either from the report of a medical practitioner rendered under section 13 or otherwise, that the death is due to natural causes, and that the body shows no appearance of death being attributable to or having been accelerated by violence or by any culpable or negligent conduct either on the part of the deceased or of any other person, it shall thereupon be lawful for the coroner at his discretion (except in the cases specified in section 6) to dispense with the holding of an inquest;

    (b)    where the coroner is informed that criminal proceedings have been or are about to be instituted against any person already in custody or about to be arrested in respect of such death, the inquest shall not be commenced, or if commenced shall not be continued or resumed, until such proceedings have been concluded.

5.    Power to order exhumation

    Notwithstanding any law or custom to the contrary enacted or obtaining, whenever it shall appear to any coroner that the body of any person, who has died in circumstances requiring the holding of an inquest thereon, has been buried without being viewed or without such inquest having been held, or where such inquest, although held, has…