STATUTORY
RULES.
1904. No. 2.
Commonwealth
of Australia,
Attorney-General’s
Department.
Melbourne,
28th January, 1904.
THE following Rules, made by the Justices
of the High Court of Australia, are published for general information.
JAMES
G. DRAKE,
Attorney-General.
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.
We certify that by
reason of urgency the following Rules should come into immediate operation.
S. W. GRIFFITH, C.J.
EDMUND BARTON, J.
RULES OF COURT.
As
of Thursday the twenty-eighth day of January a.d.
1904.
It
is ordered as follows :—
Short
title.
1.These Rules may be cited as “The
Election Rules of 1904.”
Application
of General Rules of Court.
2. The Rules of Court contained in Part 1 of the
Schedule to the High Court Procedure Act 1903,
and all amendments thereof and additions thereto, shall, so far as the same are
applicable, and are not inconsistent with these Rules, extend and apply to
proceedings in the High Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction as the Court
of Disputed Returns.
A petition disputing an election or
return shall be deemed to be an originating proceeding within the meaning of
those Rules.
Title
of Petition.
3. The petition shall be entitled in the manner
prescribed in Rule 2 of Order I., and shall also be entitled “In the matter of
the Election” in question, describing it as an election of members of the
Senate for the State in which the election was held, or as an election of a
member of the House of Representatives for the Electoral Division in question,
or as the case may be.
It shall be
divided into paragraphs in the same manner as a Statement of Claim.
C
13068.
Publication.
4. The Registrar shall forthwith after the
presentation of a petition publish a copy thereof in the Commonwealth Gazette and in the official Gazette of the State in which the election was held.
In the case of
an election of a member of the House of Representatives he shall also forthwith
publish in some newspaper circulating in the Electoral Division for which the
election was held a notice setting forth the fact of the presentation of the
petition, the date of presentation, the name of the petitioner, the nature of
the relief claimed, and the grounds on which the election is disputed.
Service
of Petition.
5. The
petitioner shall within thirty days after the presentation of the petition, or
within such further time as a Justice may allow, cause an office copy of the
petition to be served upon every person whose election or return is disputed by
the petition.
Service upon a
person returned as elected may be made either personally or by post by prepaid
registered letter addressed to him at his address as stated in his nomination
paper.
Service
at an Address for Service.
6. Any
person who has been returned as a member may send to the Registrar at the
Registry in the State in which the election was held a writing signed by him
giving an address not more than one mile from the Registry at which a petition
may be served upon him, and may by the same or another like writing appoint
some person entitled to practice in the High Court as a solicitor to act as his
agent in respect of any such petition.
When such
writing has been sent to the Registrar, service of a petition upon the person
by whom it was sent may be made by leaving the office copy of the petition with
some person at the address specified in the writing.
Appearances.
7. Any
person returned as a member whose election or return is disputed by a petition
may within fourteen days after service of the petition upon him, and any person
who voted or had a right to vote at the election to which the petition relates
may within fourteen days after the publication of the petition in the official Gazette of the State in which the
election was held, enter an appearance to the petition. Every person so
entering an appearance shall be deemed to be a party to the proceedings upon
the petition.
Particulars
of Votes objected to.
8. When
the petition, not being a petition merely claiming a fresh count of the votes,
claims the seat for a person who has not been returned as a member, and alleges
that such person had a lawful majority of votes, each of the parties shall, six
days before the day appointed for the trail of the petition, deliver to the
Registrar and to the opposite party at his address for service a list of the
votes or classes of votes intended to be objected to, specifying the grounds of
objection; and no evidence shall be offered by any party against the validity
of any vote, nor upon any grounds of objection, not specified in the list so
delivered by him, except by leave of the Court or a Justice upon such terms as
to amendment of the list, adjournment of the trial, and payment of costs, as
the Court or Justice may order.
Counter
charges.
9. When a petition claims a seat for a person who
has not been elected as a member, and a party respondent desires to set up that
the person for whom the seat is claimed was not duly elected, the ground of
objection being some ground other than an erroneous counting of the
votes, he shall within six days
after entering his appearance, or within such further time as the Court or a
Justice may allow, deliver to the Registrar and to the petitioner at his
address for service a statement of the objections which he intends to raise.
The statement shall set forth the objections in the same manner in which
objections are required to be set forth in a petition.
Particulars
in general.
10. The
Court or a Justice may order any party to a petition to deliver to any other
party particulars, or further and better particulars, of any matter alleged by
such party.
Trial.
11. The trial of the petition shall be held at a
time and place to be appointed by a Justice on the application of some party to
the petition. Ten days’ notice of trial shall be given by the party obtaining
the order to the other parties to the petition, and shall be advertised by the
Registrar in some paper or papers circulating in the State or Electoral
Division for which the election was held.
An
order appointing the time and place of trial may be varied from time to time.
Withdrawal
of Petition.
12. A
petition may be withdrawn by leave of the Court or a Justice upon such terms as
the Court or Justice may think fit.
Substitution
of another Petitioner.
Ten days’
notice of the intention to apply for leave shall be given by advertisement in
some newspaper or newspapers circulating in the State or Electoral Division for
which the election was held, and at the hearing of the application the Court or
Justice may allow any other person who was competent to present a petition on
the like grounds to be substituted for the petitioner. The proceedings upon the
petition shall thereupon be continued as if the person so substituted had been
the original petitioner.
Abatement
by death of Petitioner.
13. When a sole petitioner dies before the trial
of the petition, the Court or a Justice may allow some other person who was
competent to present a petition on the same grounds to be substituted as
petitioner. The proceedings upon the petition shall thereupon be continued as
if the person so substituted had been the original petitioner.
*
These Rules shall come into operation forthwith as Provisional Rules.
___________
S.
W. GRIFFITH, C.J.
EDMUND
BARTON, J.
Gordon H. Castle, Principal Registrar.
By
Authority: J. Kemp, Acting
Government Printer, Melbourne.