9. (1) Any Court making an investigation under section seven or

Power for Court of investiga

tion to inquire into charges against masters, mates and engin

section eight may inquire into any charge of incompetency or misconduct arising, in the course of the investigation, against any master, mate or engineer, as well as into any charge of a wrongful act or default on his part causing any such loss, abandonment, stranding, damage or casualty as aforesaid.

eers.

(2) In every case in which any such charge, whether of incompetency or misconduct, or of a wrongful act or default, as aforesaid, arises against any master, mate or engineer in the course of an investigation, the Court shall, before the commencement of the inquiry, cause to be furnished to him a copy of the report or statement of the case upon which the investigation has been directed.

10. (1) If the Local Government has reason to believe that there

Power for Local Government to direct investigation into charges of incompetency or mis

conduct.

are grounds for charging any master, mate or engineer, holding a certificate granted by the Board of Trade or a Local Government, with incompetency or misconduct, otherwise than in the course of an investigation under section seven or section eight, it may transmit a statement of the case to any Court mentioned in section eight, at or nearest to the place at which it may be convenient for the parties and witnesses to attend, and may direct that Court to make an investigation into that charge.

(2) Before commencing the investigation, the Court shall cause the master, mate or engineer so charged to be furnished with a copy of the statement transmitted by the Local Government.

11. For the purpose of an investigation under this chapter into any charge against a master, mate or engineer, the Court may summon him to appear, and shall

Person accused to be heard.

give him full opportunity of making a defence either in person or otherwise. 12. For the purpose of any investigation under this chapter, the Court making the investigation, so far as relates to compelling the attendance and examination of witnesses and the production of documents

Powers of Courts as to evidence and regulation of proceedings.

and the regulation of the proceedings, shall have—

(a) if the Court is a special Court-the same powers as are exerciseable by the principal Court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction for the place at which the investigation is made;

(b) if the Court is a Court having admiralty jurisdiction or a principal Court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction-the same powers as are exerciseable by that Court in the exercise of its admiralty or criminal jurisdiction (as the case may be).

Assessors.

13. (1) When any investigation involves, or appears likely to involve, any question as to the cancelling or suspension of the certificate of a master, mate or engineer, the Court making the investigation shall constitute as its assessors for the purpose of the investigation two persons having experience in the Merchant Service; and in every other investigation the Court making it may, if it thinks fit, constitute as its assessor for the purposes of the investigation any person conversant with maritime affairs and willing to act as its assessor.

(2) The assessors shall attend during the investigation and deliver their opinions in writing, to be recorded on the proceedings. But the exercise of all powers conferred on the Court by this Act or any other enactment for the time being in force shall rest with the Court.

Power to arrest witnesses and cause entry and detention of vessels.

14. (1) If any Court making an investigation under this chapter thinks it necessary for obtaining evidence that any person should be arrested, it may issue a warrant for his arrest, and may, for the purpose of effecting the arrest, authorize any officer (subject, nevertheless, to any general or special instructions from the Local Government) to enter any vessel.

(2) Any officer so authorized may, for the purpose of enforcing the entry, call to his aid any officers of Police or Customs, or any other persons, and may seize and detain the vessel for such time as is reasonably necessary to effect the arrest; and every such officer or other person shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code, section 186.

(3) No person shall be detained by virtue of this section for more than forty-eight hours.

bind over witnesses.

15. (1) Whenever, in the course of any such investigation, it appears that any person has committed within the Powers to commit for trial and jurisdiction of any Court in British India an offence punishable under any law in force in British India, the Court making the investigation may (subject to such rules consistent with this Act as the High Court may from time to time prescribe) cause him to be arrested, or commit him or hold him to bail to take his trial before the proper Court, and may bind over any person to give evidence at the trial, and may, for the purposes of this section, exercise all the powers of a Magistrate of the first class or of a Presidency Magistrate.

(2) For the purposes of this section the Recorder of Rangoon shall, within the local limits of his ordinary civil jurisdiction, be deemed to be the High Court.

16. (1) Whenever, in the course of any such trial, the testimony of
any witness is required in relation to the sub-
ject-matter, any deposition previously made

Depositions.

vil00548 + schn

by him in relation to the same subject-matter before any Court making an investigation under this chapter shall, if authenticated by the signature of the Magistrate or presiding Judge, be admissible in evidence on proof

(a) that the witness cannot be found within the jurisdiction of the Court before which the trial is held; and

(b) that it was made in the presence of the person accused and that he had an opportunity of cross-examining the witness.

(2) A certificate by the Magistrate or presiding Judge that the deposition was made in the presence of the accused and that he had that opportunity shall, unless the contrary be proved, be sufficient evidence that it was so made and that he had that opportunity.

17. (1) The Court shall, in the case of all investigations under this chapter, transmit to the Local Government a full report of the conclusions at which it has arrived, together with the evidence.

Report by Court to Local Government.

(2) In cases in which, under the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1882, the Court is required to send a report to the Board of Trade, the report shall be sent through the Local Government, and the transmission of the report to the Local Government shall be a sufficient compliance with this section.

CHAPTER III.

SUSPENSION AND CANCELLATION OF CERTIFICATES AND GRANT of fresh

CERTIFICATES.

18. Nothing in this Act shall affect the powers conferred by the Mer

Saving of power to cancel and suspend certificates under English Acts.

chant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 18:2, on the Courts conducting investigations under sections seven, eight, nine and ten of this Act, to cancel or suspend certificates granted under any of the said Merchant Shipping Acts, or certificates to which the provisions of any such Act have been made applicable under the Merchant Shipping (Colonial) Act, 1809.

Power to issue local certificates in lieu of cancelled or suspended

certificates.

19. (1) When any such Court cancels or suspends any such certificate, the Local Government may, if it thinks fit, and if it is so empowered by any enactment of a British Indian legislature for the time being in force, grant under that enactment, but without examination, to the holder of the certificate, when the certificate is a certificate as master, a certificate as mate, and, when the certificate is a certificate as mate or engineer, a certificate as mate or engineer, as the case may be, of a grade lower than that which he held at the time of the cancellation or suspension.

(2) A certificate so granted shall have the same effect as if it had been granted after examination, but shall not have the effect of a certificate granted under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping (Colonial) Act, 1869, or of any Order in Council under that Act.

(3) The Local Government may act under this section either in pursuance of a recommendation from the Court, or of its own motion. 20. Any certificate (whether of competency or service) which has Power for Local Government been granted by any Local Government to to suspend or cancel certificates any master, mate or engineer, but has not in certain cases. been granted under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping (Colonial) Act, 1869, or of any Order in Council under the said Act, may be suspended or cancelled, by that or any other Local Government, in the following cases, that is to say :

(a) if, on any investigation made under this Act, the Court reports 20.12.

that the loss, stranding or abandonment of, or damage to, any ship, or loss of life, has been caused by his wrongful act or default, or that he is incompetent, or has been guilty of any gross act of drunkenness, tyranny or other misconduct;

(b) if, on any investigation made under the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1882, or on any investigation made by any Coart or tribunal for the time being authorized by the legislative authority in any British possession to make inquiry into charges of incompetency or misconduct on the part of masters, mates or engineers of ships, or as to shipwrecks or other casualties affecting ships, the Court or tribunal reports that the master, mate or engineer is incompetent, or has been guilty of any gross act of misconduct, drunkenness or tyranny, or that the loss, stranding or abandonment of, or damage to, any ship, or loss of life, has been caused by his wrongful act or default;

(c) if he is proved to have been convicted of any offence which, if committed in British India, would be non-bailable, or, if committed in England, would be a felony ; and

(d) if (in case of a master) he has been superseded by the order of any Admiralty Court, or of any Naval Court constituted as provided by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, or by any other law for the time being in force:

5.12 2.

Provided that, in any case in which an investigation has been made Rs.12 into a charge against any master, mate or engineer, a certificate shall not be suspended or cancelled under clause (a) unless the Local Government is satisfied that the holder of the certificate has been furnished before the commencement of the investigation with the copy of the report or statement required by section nine or section ten, as the case may be.

21. Every master, mate or engineer whose certificate is cancelled or Obligation to deliver up cansuspended under section twenty shall deliver celled or suspended certificate. it to the Shipping Master or to such other person as the Local Government which cancelled or suspended the certificate directs, and in default of such delivery shall, for each offence, be punished with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.

'added by

Report to other Local Govern

ments.

22. If the Local Government which cancels or suspends, under section twenty, a certificate of a master, mate or engineer is not the Local Government that granted the same, the Local Government so cancelling or suspending the certificate shall report the proceedings, and the fact of cancellation or suspension, to the Local Government which granted the certificate.

23. Every Local Government cancelling or suspending under section twenty the certificate of a master, mate or Report to Board of Trade. engineer shall, as soon as may be practicable, report to the Board of Trade the fact of such cancellation or suspension. 24. (1) Any Local Government may at any time revoke any order of cancellation or suspension which it may have made under section twenty, or grant, without examination, to any person, whose certificate

Power to revoke cancellation or suspension and grant new certificate.

it has so cancelled, a new certificate of the same or of any lower grade.

(2) A certificate so granted shall have the same effect as if it had been granted after examination, but shall not have the effect of a certificate granted under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping (Colonial) ·Act, 1869, or of any Order in Council under the said Act.

(3) A certificate of competency for a Home-trade ship under Act I. of 1859 shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be of a lower grade than a certificate of competency for a foreign-going ship under the same Act.

(4)

vi/91 5.13.

CHAPTER IV.

AGREEMENTS WITH SEAMEN.

Chapter to be read with Act I. of

1859.

Masters to enter into agreements with seamen.

25. This chapter shall be read with, and taken as part of, Act I. of 1859.

26. The master of every ship, except ships of a burden not exceeding three hundred tons employed only in the Home-trade, shall enter into an agreement with every seamen whom he engages in, and carries to sea from, any port in British India as one of his crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned.

Form and contents of agreement.

27. (1) Every such agreement shall be in a form sanctioned by the Governor General in Council, and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seaman signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars as terms thereof, that is to say :