The High Court received a letter dated 28 March 1998 requesting me to call up Jasin Magistrates Court Summons Case No 83-36-97 for revision. In brief, the letter stated that the accused was charged under s 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333/87) and the matter had come up for hearing a couple of times but adjourned on the ground that the police did not supply the accused with the relevant documents. On 23 March 1998, when the case came up again before the learned magistrate, the accused requested for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on the specific ground that the police had not supplied him the documents as ordered by the court. The learned magistrate acquiesced to that request.

Having detected a probable mistake committed by the learned magistrate I ordered the file to be placed before me and on 20 April 1998 enquired into the matter in open court. Having perused the notes of the proceeding, I concluded that on one occasion the case was postponed as the court was without an interpreter, twice by reason of the default of the accuseds counsel, and twice due to the inability of the prosecution to supply the documents to the accused as ordere