Child Care Act, 1983 (Act No. 74 of 1983)Chapter 2 : Children’s Courts and Commissioners of Child Welfare8. Procedure in children’s courts |
| 1) | A children's court shall sit in a room other than that in which any other court ordinarily sits, unless no such other room is available and suitable. |
| 2) | At any sitting of a children’s court no person shall be present unless his presence is necessary in connection with the proceedings of that court, or he is the legal representative of any person whose presence is necessary as aforesaid, or unless the commissioner presiding at that sitting has granted him permission to be present. |
| 3) | No person shall publish in any manner whatever any information relating to proceedings in a children’s court which reveals or may reveal the identity of any child who is or was concerned in those proceedings: Provided that the Minister or the commissioner who presides or presided at those proceedings may authorise the publication of so much of the said information as he may deem fit if the publication thereof would in his opinion be just and equitable and in the interest of any particular person. |
| 4) | On the application of a children’s court assistant mentioned in section 7 the clerk of the children’s court to which that assistant is attached shall subpoena any witness to give evidence or to produce a book or document at any proceedings of that court. |
| 5) | On the application of any person who is likely to be affected by any order which may be made by a children’s court as a result of any proceedings therein (or on the application of the representative of such a person) the clerk of that children’s court shall subpoena any witness to give evidence or to produce a book or document at those proceedings. |
| 6) | Any subpoena mentioned in subsection (4) or (5) shall be served upon the witness concerned mutatis mutandis as if it were a subpoena to give evidence or to produce a book or document at a criminal trial in a magistrate’s court. |
| 7) | The provisions of sections 188 and 189 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977), shall mutatis mutandis apply in connection with a person subpoenaed under subsection (4) or (5) of this section or required by a commissioner of child welfare to give evidence at any proceedings in a children’s court. |
| 8) | A parent or the guardian or custodian of a child concerned in any proceedings in a children’s court who has attended those proceedings and any person who has attended any such proceedings to give evidence or to produce a book or document shall be entitled to such an allowance as would be due to him if he had attended to give evidence or to produce a book or document at a criminal trial in a magistrate’s court: Provided that all allowances payable to witnesses who were subpoenaed to attend or who were called at proceedings in connection with an application for an order for the adoption of a child and all expenses incurred in securing the attendance of those witnesses shall be paid by the applicant for that order: Provided further that such a parent or guardian or custodian, or a witness who was subpoenaed to attend on the application of any person other than the children’s court assistant (or on the application of the representative of such a person) or who was called as a witness by such a person or his representative, shall not be entitled to any such allowances from public funds unless the commissioner who presided at those proceedings has directed that he be paid such an allowance or any part of such an allowance as the commissioner may have determined. |
| 9) | Any person who publishes any information in contravention of subsection (3) or contrary to any authorisation under subsection (3), shall be guilty of an offence. |