Rex v Munnik [1915] ZATPD 98 (17 December 1915)

Criminal law --Procedwre -Magistrate's court.--Whether· summons necessary.-Essentials of charge sheet.-Whether it should be signed.-Magistrates Courts' Rules 62, 63 and 61.- Ord. I of 1903, sec. 114.

It is not necessary to issue a summons against an accused in every case falling under Rule 67 of the Magistrates' Courts' Rules; a summons is only required when the accused is not otherwise before the Court. Under Rules 62 and 63 of the Magistrates' Courts' Rules, the charge sheet should
formulate the nature of the complaint with accuracy and precision, and should state whether the prosecution is· a. private or a public one.
The provisions in sec. 114 of Ord. 1 of 1903 requiring that an indictment should be signed, do not apply to prosecutions in magistrates' courts.
M. appeared-the records not showing how-before a magistrate on October 14th on a charge of criminal slander. The case was postponed till October 26th, and
on October 22nd M's attorney received an unsigned charge sheet headed " Rex v. Jan Hendrik Munnik, charged with criminal slander," and giving the particulars of the charge. At the trial a public prosecutor ·appeared for the prosecution, and two objections to the charge sheet, based on the grounds (1) that it did not state in whose name the prosecution was, and (2) that it was not signed, were overruled by the magistrate. Held, on appeal, that the words "Rex v. J. H. Munnik" at the head of the charge sheet were a
sufficient notification to the accused that £he prosecution was a public one. Held, further, that there was no provision in law that a charge sheet in a magistrates' court should be signed, and that the appeal should, therefore,
be dismissed.