Bidar explains process

By Tabitha Nero
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar yesterday explained the process of a committal court proceeding after observing confusion among young lawyers.
Bidar explained that there were three things which occurred in a committal court.
He pointed out that a case went through a “screening process” before three things were likely to happen.
These are:

• A defendant can be discharged on insufficiency of evidence;
• A defendant can be committed to stand trial at the National Court; or,
• A defendant can be committed to sentencing at the National Court.

“Many young lawyers confuse submissions of no case and submissions of sufficiency of evidence,” Bidar told the court.
He explained the difference between the two,  stating that a submission of no case often came from the defendant’s lawyer at the end of the prosecution’s case in the National Court. A submission of sufficiency of evidence was presented in the committal court by the defendants’ lawyer to tell the court that there was not enough evidence to commit the case for trial.