Hong Kong Ordinances

HIGH COURT ORDINANCE - SECT 25

Power of Court of First Instance to vary sentence on certiorari

(Past version on 30/06/1997).

Adaptation amendments retroactively made - see 25 of 1998 s. 2

(1) Where a person who has been sentenced for an offence by a magistrate or
the District Court applies to the Court of First Instance for an order of
certiorari to remove the proceedings before the magistrate or the District
Court into the Court of First Instance, and the Court of  First Instance
determines that the magistrate or the District Court had no power to pass the
sentence, the Court of First Instance may, instead of quashing the conviction,
amend it by substituting for the sentence passed any sentence which the
magistrate or the District Court had power to impose.

(2) Any sentence passed by the Court of First Instance by virtue of this
section in substitution for the sentence passed by a magistrate or the
District Court shall, unless the Court of First Instance otherwise directs,
begin to run from the time when it would have begun to run if passed by the
magistrate or the District Court.

(3) This section shall apply, with the necessary modifications, in relation to
any order of a magistrate or the District Court which is made on, but does not
form part of, the conviction of an offender as it applies in relation to a
conviction and sentence. (Amended 25 of 1998 s. 2) [cf. 1960 c. 65 s. 16 U.K.]