Production orders against financial institution to produce material relating to drug dealing or criminal conduct
37.—(1) The Public Prosecutor or any person duly authorised by the Public Prosecutor in writing may, for the purpose of an investigation into a drug dealing offence or a serious offence (as the case may be), apply to the General Division of the High Court for an order under subsection (2) in relation to any particular material or material of a particular description.
[15/2010; 21/2014; 40/2019]
(2) The General Division of the High Court may, if on such an application it is satisfied that the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) are fulfilled, make an order that the financial institution which appears to the General Division of the High Court to be in possession of the material to which the application relates must —
(a)
produce the material to the Public Prosecutor or the person duly authorised by the Public Prosecutor for the Public Prosecutor or such person to take away; or
(b)
give the Public Prosecutor or the person duly authorised by the Public Prosecutor access to the material,
within a reasonable period, but not less than 7 days, as the order may specify.
[15/2010; 40/2019]
(3) The conditions mentioned in subsection (2) are —
(a)
that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that a specified person has carried on or has benefited from drug dealing or criminal conduct, as the case may be;
(b)
that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the material to which the application relates —
(i)
is likely to be of substantial value (whether by itself or together with other material) to the investigation for the purpose of which the application is made; and
(ii)
does not consist of or include items subject to legal privilege; and
(c)
that there are reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the public interest to produce the material to which the application relates.
[21/2014]
(4) A financial institution which complies with an order made under subsection (2) is not to be treated as being in breach of any restriction upon the disclosure of information or material imposed by law, contract or rules of professional conduct.
(5) No action shall lie against a financial institution which in good faith produces materials or gives access to materials relating to the account of its customer by reason of that financial institution having produced or given access to the materials in compliance with an order made against it under subsection (2) or any act done or omitted to be done in relation to any funds, investment or property in the account of that customer in consequence of the production of or access to those materials.
(6) In subsection (5), each reference to a customer of a financial institution is, if the financial institution is a VCC, a reference to its member.
[44/2018]
(7) The proceedings for an application for a production order under this section are to be heard in private.
[Act 25 of 2021 wef 01/04/2022]
(8) The Public Prosecutor or the person duly authorised by the Public Prosecutor may exercise the powers conferred on the Public Prosecutor or the person (as the case may be) by this section despite any other written law relating to the production of, or the giving of any access to, any particular material or material of a particular description.