Criminal Code (Cap. 9), article 551

551. (1) In cases of sudden or violent or suspicious death or of death whereof the cause is unknow n, a report thereof shall be m ade by the Executive Police to a magis trate; the magistrate shall h old an inquest on the body for the purpose of ascertaining the cause o f death and shall, for that object, take all such evidence as may be possible for him to procure; after taking all the evidence, the magistrate shall draw up and sign a procès-verbal stating his finding as to th e cause of death. (2) Whenever a person dies while he is imprisoned or detained in any place of confinement contemplated in the Prisons Act , or while he is in Police custody, a n inquest shall be held and a procès- verbal shall be drawn up for the purposes of and in accordance with the provisions of sub-article (1). (3) The provision of the last pr eceding sub-article shall also apply whenever a person dies in Mount Carmel Hospital while he is kept there under an order of a court made pursuant to sub-artic le (3) of article 525 or to article 623(1) or for the purpose of his b eing examined by experts appointed by the court to report on the ple a of insanity. (4) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-article (1), in cases of sudden death or of death the cause whereof is unknown, the magistrate may, instead of holding in person an inquest on the body, and without prejudice to his powers under article 552, ac t as *Vide Article 11 of Act VIII of 2025 . †Vide Article 11 of Act VIII of 2025 . 360 CAP . 9.] CRIMINAL CODE provided in article 546(3), and where he so acts the provisions of that sub-article shall, mutatis mutandis , apply. (5) The provisions of article 547(2) shall apply to inquests hel d for the purpose of this article. Autopsy. Substituted by: XIII.1980.24.