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.