236. Every accused person before any court may of right be defended by an advocate.
237.
—(1) Subject to subsection (3), if a judge, having heard and recorded the whole or part of the evidence in a trial, is unable to complete the case, it may be continued by another judge who has and who exercises such jurisdiction.
(2) The judge who continues the case may, in the interest of justice and without material prejudice to the parties to the proceedings —
(a)
act on the evidence recorded by his predecessor or recorded partly by his predecessor and partly by himself; or
(b)
start the trial again by summoning the witnesses.
(3) When there is a change of judge, any party to the proceedings may apply for any or all of the witnesses to be summoned and heard again and the judge must allow the application unless —
(a)
the witness is dead or cannot be found or is incapable of giving evidence or is kept out of the way by the party making the application, or he cannot be brought to court without unreasonable delay or expense; or
(b)
the court believes that the application is frivolous, vexatious or is made for the purpose of delay.
(4) The appellate court may set aside any conviction made on evidence not wholly heard by the trial court which continued the case and it may order a new trial, if it believes that the accused’s defence on the merits has been materially prejudiced by the proceedings.
238.
—(1) The court may postpone or adjourn any inquiry, trial or other proceedings on such terms as it thinks fit and for as long as it considers reasonable, if the absence of a witness or any other reasonable cause makes this necessary or advisable.
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(2) Subject to subsection (3), if the accused is not on bail, the court may by a warrant remand him in custody as it thinks fit.
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(3) If it appears likely that further evidence may be obtained by a remand, the court may so remand the accused in custody for the purpose of any investigation by a law enforcement agency but not for more than 8 days at a time.
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(4) If the accused is on bail, the court may extend the bail.
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(5) The court must record in writing the reasons for the postponement or adjournment of the proceedings.
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