Companies Act, 1963

• Permanent Page URL

Production and inspection of books when offence suspected.

384.—(1) If on an application to a Judge of the High Court by the Attorney General, the Minister or a Superintendent of the Garda Síochána, there is shown to be reasonable cause to believe that any person has, while an officer of a company, committed an offence in connection with the management of the company's affairs and that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found in any books or papers of or under the control of the company, an order may be made—

(a) authorising any person named therein to inspect the said books or papers or any of them for the purpose of investigating and obtaining evidence of the offence; or

(b) requiring the secretary of the company or such other officer thereof as may be named in the order to produce the said books or any of them to a person named in the order at a place so named.

(2) Subsection (1) shall apply also in relation to any books or papers of a person carrying on the business of banking so far as they relate to the company's affairs, as it applies to any books or papers of or under the control of the company, except that no such order as is referred to in paragraph (b) thereof shall be made by virtue of this subsection.

(3) The decision of a Judge of the High Court on an application under this section shall be final subject to an appeal to the Supreme Court on a question of law.

(4) In this section, “company” includes a company incorporated outside the State which has an established place of business in the State.