Tanzania
Inquests Act
Chapter 24
- Commenced on 1 July 1980
- [This is the version of this document at 30 November 2019.]
- [Note: This legislation has been thoroughly revised and consolidated under the supervision of the Attorney General's Office, in compliance with the Laws Revision Act No. 7 of 1994, the Revised Laws and Annual Revision Act (Chapter 356 (R.L.)), and the Interpretation of Laws and General Clauses Act No. 30 of 1972. This version is up-to-date as at 31st July 2002.]
Part I – Preliminary provisions
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Inquests Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires–"appropriate authority" means the person appointed by the Minister to be the appropriate authority for the purposes of this Act;"Coroner" means any person empowered or appointed under section 5 to hold inquest under this Act;"hospital" means any institution for the reception and medical treatment of persons who are injured, infirm or suffering from illness, and includes a dispensary, health centre, maternity home, clinic (whether mobile or not) and also any place or premises used for purposes of medical treatment, whether regularly or periodically;"inquest" means any inquiry held by a Coroner under this Act into the death of any person;"local authority" means a City Council, a Municipal Council, a Town Council or a District Development Council;"medical practitioner" means a person for the time being authorised to practise the medical profession by virtue of his being registered or licensed under the provisions of the Medical, Dental and Allied Health Professionals Act, and includes any person for the time being in charge of a hospital;[Act No. Cap. 152]"Minister" means the Minister for the time being responsible for legal matters;"official custody" means detention-(a)in the custody of a police officer, a prisons officer, an officer of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau or any officer authorized to carry out any function under the Preventive Detention Act;[Cap. 361](b)in any reformatory school or remand home under the management, control or administration of the Commissioner for Social Welfare in consequence of any detention or committal order; or(c)in a mental hospital under section 9 of the Mental Diseases Act or section 168 of the Criminal Procedure Act or any other written law;[Cap. 98; Cap. 20]"Principal Judge" means a Judge of the High Court of Tanzania, appointed under Article 109 of the Constitution of the United Republic.[Cap. 2]Part II – Coroners' Courts
3. Establishment of Coroners’ Courts
4. Functions of Coroners’ Courts
5. Qualifications and appointment of Coroners
Part III – Powers and duites of Coroners
6. When inquest may be held
7. Power to dispense with inquest in certain cases
Where it appears to the Coroner, either from the report of a medical practitioner rendered under section 11 or from any other evidence, that the death is due to natural causes, and the body shows no appearance of death being attributable to or of having been accelerated by violence or by any culpable or negligent act either on the part of the deceased or of any other person, he may, except in cases specified in section 15, dispense with the holding of an inquest.[Cap. 4 s. 8]8. Postponement and adjournment of inquests in certain cases
9. Power to order exhumation
10. Coroner may direct postmortem examination
11. Medical practitioner to make examination and report thereof
Part IV – Holding of inquests
12. Notice of death
13. Preliminary examination of body
14. Inquest into sudden or violent death
15. Executions and deaths in prison, etc
16. Inquest where body destroyed or irrecoverable
Where a Coroner reasonably believes that a death has occurred in the area under his jurisdiction in circumstances necessitating the holding of an inquest, and that owing to the destruction of the body by fire or other natural agent or to the fact that the body is lying in a place from which it cannot be recovered, an ordinary inquest cannot be held, he may, if he considers it desirable, hold an inquest touching on the death, and the law relating to inquests shall apply with such modifications as may be necessary in consequence of the inquest being held otherwise than on or after view of a body lying within the Coroner’s jurisdiction.17. Coroner may call for statements recorded by police officers
18. Power of D.P.P. to order inquest
The Director of Public Prosecutions may, if he considers it necessary or desirable in the public interest order that an inquest be held into the death of any person, and if a Coroner is so required by the Director of Public Prosecutions he shall hold an inquest into the cause of and the circumstances connected with the death of any person.Part V – Procedure at inquest
19. The inquisition
20. Provisions regarding viewing of body
21. Coroner may summon witnesses
22. Coroner not bound by rules of evidence
Wherever at any inquest evidence is adduced by witnesses attending in pursuance to summonses served on them, the Coroner holding the inquest shall not be bound by any rules of evidence which pertain to civil or criminal proceedings, and no witness may object to answer any question on the ground only that it will tend to incriminate him; but nothing which any witness says in reply to any question put to him at any inquest shall be used against him at any subsequent trial.23. Examination of witnesses
24. Recording of evidence
25. Statements recorded by police officers may be admitted as evidence at inquest
Notwithstanding any written law for the time being relating to the admission of evidence made to police officers, where, upon hearing the evidence of a police officer having charge of or concerned in an investigation into the death of a deceased person, the Coroner is satisfied that—26. Inquests on Sundays, etc., or in private
27. Adjournment of inquest
A Coroner holding an inquest in any place may adjourn it to another day and may order the adjourned inquest to be held in the same or at any other place.28. Conclusion of inquest
Where during or at the close of the inquest the Coroner is of the opinion that sufficient grounds are disclosed for making a charge against any person in connection with the death, he shall record a verdict—29. Return of inquisitions
As soon as practicable after the conclusion of an inquest, in circumstances other than those in section 28, the Coroner shall deliver to the Registrar of the High Court of the United Republic-30. Powers of High Court
Part VI – Miscellaneous provisions
31. Powers of Coroner to order burial or cremation
A Coroner may, notwithstanding that he considers that an inquest is necessary, order any body to be buried or cremated and he shall in that case give a certificate of his order in the prescribed form.32. Penalty where body is buried without authority
33. Obstructing medical practitioner, etc
Any person who obstructs a medical practitioner, police officer or other person in the execution of any duty imposed on him by this Act commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred shillings.34. Power to make regulations
The Principal Judge may, with the consent of the Minister, make regulations, which shall be published in the Gazette prescribing the scale of fees to be paid-35. Prescribed forms
The Forms set out in the Schedule to this Act shall be used for the matters to which they respectively relate with such variations as circumstances may require; but the Principal Judge may, from time to time, by notice in the Gazette, amend, add to or replace any of the provisions of the Schedule to this Act.36. Repeal
Repeals the Inquests Ordinance R.L. Cap. 24.History of this document
30 November 2019 this version
Consolidation
01 July 1980
Commenced
Subsidiary legislation
Title | Numbered title |
---|---|
Inquests (Establishment of Coroners' Courts) Order, 1984 | Government Notice 71 of 1984 |
Cited documents 0
Documents citing this one 4
Legislation 3
1. | Accidents and Occupational Diseases (Notification) Act | |
2. | Inquests (Establishment of Coroners' Courts) Order, 1984 | |
3. | Penal Code (Anatomy) Rules, 1962 |
Judgment 1
1. | Gabriel Simon Mnyele vs Republic (Criminal Appeal 437 of 2007) [2010] TZCA 97 (22 December 2010) | 28 citations |