Additional procedure if electronic application
275 Additional procedure if electronic application
For an application made under section 274, the magistrate may issue the warrant (the original warrant) only if the magistrate is satisfied—
it was necessary to make the application under section 274; and
the way the application was made under section 274 was appropriate.
After the magistrate issues the original warrant—
if there is a reasonably practicable way of immediately giving a copy of the warrant to the authorised officer, including, for example, by sending a copy by fax or email, the magistrate must immediately give a copy of the warrant to the authorised officer; or
otherwise—
the magistrate must tell the authorised officer the information mentioned in section 273(4); and
the authorised officer must complete a form of warrant including by writing on it the information mentioned in section 273(4) provided by the magistrate.
The copy of the warrant mentioned in subsection (2)(a), or the form of warrant completed under subsection (2)(b) (in either case the duplicate warrant), is a duplicate of, and as effectual as, the original warrant.
The authorised officer must, at the first reasonable opportunity, send to the magistrate—
the written application complying with section 272(2) and (3); and
if the authorised officer completed a form of warrant under subsection (2)(b)—the completed form of warrant.
The magistrate must keep the original warrant and, on receiving the documents under subsection (4)—
attach the documents to the original warrant; and
give the original warrant and documents to the clerk of the court of the relevant magistrates court.
Despite subsection (3), if—
an issue arises in a proceeding about whether an exercise of a power was authorised by a warrant issued under this section; and
the original warrant is not produced in evidence;
the onus of proof is on the person relying on the lawfulness of the exercise of the power to prove a warrant authorised the exercise of the power.
This section does not limit section 272.
In this section—relevant magistrates court, in relation to a magistrate, means the Magistrates Court that the magistrate constitutes under the Magistrates Act 1991.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
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