§ Mr. KENDAL O'BRIEN (Tipperary, Mid.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, seeing that the Second Section of the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act requires that a Court of Summary Jurisdiction shall consist of two resident Magistrates in Petty Sessions, one of whom shall be a person of the sufficiency of whose legal knowledge the Lord Lieutenant shall be satisfied, and that a defendant may claim that the Magistrates shall show certificates that the Lord Lieutenant was so satisfied, he will explain why the resident Magistrate who presided in Templemore over a Court held under this Act, before which 14 persons were prosecuted, when asked by the defendants' counsel, refused to show such certificate; whether he can say if this Magistrate is properly qualified to preside over such a Court.
§ Mr. WYNDHAMThe constitution of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction formed under the Act is regulated by Section 11, not Section 2. The Statute does not confer upon the defendant a right to require the Magistrates, or either of them, to produce proof that the Court is properly constituted under the former Section. In the present instance, both of the Magistrates who adjudicated were qualified within the meaning of the Section.