### Magistrates Ordinance 《裁判官條例》

35A. Inspection etc. of minute and register
(1) Every minute taken under section 34(1) and every register kept under section 35(1) shall be open for inspection without fee or reward by—
(a) a judge;
(b) the Registrar;
(c) the Secretary for Justice; (Amended L.N. 362 of 1997)
(d) a judge or deputy judge of the District Court;
(e) the registrar of the District Court;
(f) a magistrate;
(g) any party to the proceedings to which the minute relates or to any proceedings which may be recorded in the register, or his legal representative;
(h) any person, or his legal representative, who satisfies the Registrar or the magistrates’ clerk that such inspection is reasonably required in connection with actual or potential civil or criminal proceedings by or against that person;
(i) any person who satisfies the Registrar or the magistrates’ clerk that there is good and sufficient reason for that inspection.
(2) Any person aggrieved by the decision of a magistrates’ clerk to refuse permission to inspect may appeal to a magistrate whose decision shall be final.
(3) A decision by the Registrar to refuse permission to inspect shall be final.
(4) The right to inspect under subsection (1) shall include the right to a copy of the minute or register subject, in the case of applicants under subsection (1)(g), (h) and (i), to the payment of the prescribed fee.
(5) Disclosure of the contents of a minute or register under subsection (1) shall not amount to a breach of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 297).
(Replaced 13 of 1995 s. 42)

36. Power to permit conditional release of offenders
(1) Where any person is charged before a magistrate with an offence punishable on summary conviction, and the magistrate thinks that the charge is proved but is of opinion that, having regard to the character, antecedents, age, health or mental condition of the person charged or to the trivial nature of the offence or to the extenuating circumstances under which the offence was committed, it is inexpedient to inflict any punishment or any other than a nominal punishment, the magistrate, after conviction, may make an order either—
(a) discharging the offender absolutely; or
(b) discharging the offender conditionally on his entering into a recognizance, with or without sureties, in a sum not greater than $2,000, to be of good behaviour and to appear for sentence when called on at any time during such period, not exceeding 3 years, as may be specified in the order. (See Forms 10, 11, 11A)

### Magistrates Ordinance 《裁判官條例》

37. Reduction of imprisonment on part payment of fine
(1) Subject to the provisions of subsections (2) and (3), where a term of imprisonment is imposed by a magistrate in respect of the non-payment of any sum of money adjudged to be paid by a conviction or order, that term shall, on payment of a part of such sum to any person authorized by a magistrate to receive it, be reduced by a number of days bearing as nearly as possible the same proportion to the total number of days in the term as the sum paid bears to the sum adjudged to be paid.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), in reckoning the number of days by which any term of imprisonment would be reduced under this section, the first day of imprisonment shall not be taken into account, and in reckoning the sum which will secure the reduction of a term of imprisonment, fractions of a cent shall be omitted. (Replaced 30 of 1958 s. 6)
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), where any person who has been sentenced to imprisonment in default of payment of a sum of money adjudged to be paid by a conviction or order earns under the Prison Rules (Cap. 234 sub. leg. A) any remission of the sentence, the term of his imprisonment shall for the purposes of subsection (1) be deemed, at any given time, to have been reduced by such period of remission as may at the time stand to his credit. (Amended E.R. 2 of 2018)
[cf. 1914 c. 58 s. 3(1) U.K.]

38. Application of money found on defaulter to satisfy sum adjudged
(1) Where a defendant is fined and the same is not forthwith paid, the magistrate may order the defendant to be searched.
(2) Any money found on the arrest of a person adjudged to pay a fine, or on a search as aforesaid, or on his being taken to prison or other place of detention in default of payment of such a fine may, unless the magistrate otherwise directs, be applied towards payment of the fine; and the balance, if any, shall be returned to him.
(3) The magistrate shall not allow the application as aforesaid of any money found on a person if he is satisfied that the money does not belong to him or that the loss of the money would be more injurious to his family than would be his detention.
(Replaced 41 of 1956 s. 2)[cf. 1952 c. 55 s. 68 U.K.]

### Magistrates Ordinance 《裁判官條例》

39. Recognizance may be dispensed with
Where in the case either of imprisonment or a fine there is prescribed a requirement for the offender to enter into his recognizance and to find sureties for keeping the peace and observing some other condition, or to do any of such things, the magistrate may dispense with any requirement or any part thereof.

40. Summary order
(1) Where a power is given by any future enactment to a magistrate of requiring any person to do or to abstain from doing any act or thing, other than the payment of money, or of requiring any act or thing to be done or left undone, other than the payment of money, and no mode is prescribed of enforcing such requisition, a magistrate may exercise such power by an order and may annex thereto any conditions as to time or mode of action which he may think just, and may suspend or rescind any such order on such undertaking being given or condition being performed as he may think just, and generally may make such arrangements for carrying into effect such power as to him may seem meet.
(2) A person making default in complying with any such order shall be punished in the prescribed manner, or, if no punishment is prescribed, may be ordered to pay a sum of $25 for every day during which he is in default, or to be imprisoned until he has remedied his default: (See Form 68)

41. Provision as to mode of payment of sum adjudged to be paid
(1) The magistrate by whose conviction or order any sum is adjudged to be paid may do all or any of the following things— (See Form 42)

42. Return by magistrate’s order of property taken from defendant
Where any property has been taken from a person charged before magistrate with an offence punishable either on indictment or on summary conviction, a report shall be made by the police on the charge sheet to the magistrate of the fact of such property having been taken from the accused or defendant and of the particulars thereof, and the magistrate may, if he is of opinion that the property or any portion thereof can be returned consistently with the interests of justice and with the safe custody of the accused or defendant, direct such property or any portion thereof to be returned to the accused or defendant or such other person as he may direct.
[cf. 1879 c. 49 s. 44 U.K.]