Hepworth J:

This was an appeal by two bailors that their cash bail of $1,000 which they had deposited had been wrongly forfeited by the learned president under s. 404(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The grounds of appeal were that the learned president had failed to have taken evidence on oath as to the forfeiture of the bond and this occasioned a failure of jurisdiction. The appellants had consequently not been given an opportunity of cross-examining the witness or witnesses on whose evidence the forfeiture was held to be established.

Section 404(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code reads as follows:

404(i) Whenever it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court by which a bond under this code has been taken,

or when the bond is for appearance before a Court, whenever, it is proved to the satisfaction of such Court,

that such bond has been forfeited, the Court shall record the grounds of such proof and may call upon any person bound by such bond to pay the penalty thereof or to show cause why it should not be paid."

In Mallal's Criminal Procedure, 4th Edn., when considering the comparable provisions of owtion 416 of the Singapore Criminal Procedure Code the author st