Vital State Projects Act 1976

the averment of the prosecutor or informant made in writing and served on the accused as hereinafter provided shall be prima facie evidence of the matter or matters averred;

paragraph (a) shall apply to any matter so averred although—

evidence in support or rebuttal of the matter averred or of any other matter is given by witnesses; or

the matter averred is a mixed question of law and fact; or

the matter averred is evidentiary only;

any evidence given by witnesses in support or rebuttal of a matter so averred shall be considered on its merits and the credibility and probative value of such evidence shall neither be increased nor diminished by reason of this section;

an averment shall not be evidence for the purposes of this section unless a copy of the paper containing the averment has been served on the accused in the same manner as the process requiring his attendance before the court;

service of a copy of the document containing the averment may be proved in the same manner as service of the process commanding the attendance of the accused before the court may be proved;

the court may, if the amendments can be made without hardship or injustice to the accused, allow such amendments to be made in the writing containing an averment as appear to be desirable or to be necessary to enable the real question in dispute to be determined;

if in any such case the court considers the accused has been misled by the form of the averment it may refuse to allow the amendments or adjourn the hearing of the case for such period as it thinks fit and make such order as to the costs of the adjournment as it thinks proper.