Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977)Chapter 23 : Witnesses191. Payment of expenses of witness |
| (1) | Any person who attends criminal proceedings as a witness for the State shall be entitled to such allowance as may be prescribed under subsection (3): Provided that the judicial officer or the judge presiding at such proceedings may, if he thinks fit, direct that no such allowance or that only a part of such allowance shall be paid to any such witness. |
| (2) | Subject to any regulation made under subsection (3), the judicial officer or the judge presiding at criminal proceedings may, if he thinks fit, direct that any person who has attended such proceedings as a witness for the accused, shall be paid such allowance as may be prescribed by such regulation, or such lesser allowance as such judicial officer or such judge may determine. |
| (3) | The Minister may, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, by regulation prescribe a tariff of allowances which may be paid out of public moneys to witnesses in criminal proceedings, and may by regulation prescribe different tariffs for witnesses according to their several callings, occupations or stations in life, and according also to the distances to be travelled by such witnesses to reach the place where the proceedings in question are to take place, and may by regulation further prescribe the circumstances in which such allowances may be paid to any witness for an accused. |
| (4) | The Minister may under subsection (3) empower any officer in the service of the State to authorise, in any case in which the payment of an allowance in accordance with the tariff prescribed may cause undue hardship or in the case of any person resident outside the Republic, the payment of an allowance in accordance with a higher tariff than the tariff prescribed. |
| (5) | For the purposes of this section "witness" shall include any person necessarily required to accompany any witness on account of his youth, old age or infirmity. |