New South Wales Consolidated Acts

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION ACT 1988 - SECT 99

99 Punishment of contempt

(1) Any contempt of the Commission under section 98 may be punished in accordance with this section.

(2) A Commissioner may present to the Supreme Court a certificate (in this Part called a
"contempt of the Commission certificate" ) in which the Commissioner sets out the facts that constitute the alleged contempt.

(3) If a Commissioner presents a contempt of the Commission certificate to the Supreme Court--

(a) the Supreme Court shall thereupon inquire into the alleged contempt, and

(b) after hearing any witnesses who may be produced against or on behalf of the person charged with the contempt, and after hearing any statement that may be offered in defence, the Supreme Court (if satisfied that the person is guilty of the contempt) may punish or take steps for the punishment of the person in like manner and to the like extent as if the person had committed that contempt in or in relation to proceedings in the Supreme Court, and

(c) the provisions of the Supreme Court Act 1970 and the rules of court of the Supreme Court shall, with any necessary adaptations, apply and extend accordingly.

(4) Such a certificate is prima facie evidence of the matters certified.

(5) Neither liability to be punished nor punishment under this section for contempt referred to in section 98 (a) or (aa) excuses the offender from attending before the Commission in obedience to the summons, and a Commissioner may enforce attendance by warrant.

(6) A person is not liable to be punished under this section where the person establishes that there was a reasonable excuse for the act or omission concerned.