Peremptory challenges

(1) Every accused person shall be entitled to challenge as they are called, (a) on a charge of treason, nine jurors; and (b) on any other charge, five jurors, without stating the ground of his challenge. (2) Before the Registrar commences to empanel the jury for trial of the issue in any criminal cause he shall inform the accused person of his right of challenge and that if he desires thus to challenge any juror he must do so before the juror is sworn and not afterwards. (3) The Crown shall have the right to demand, without stating any cause, that any juror called upon to sit at a trial should stand aside but that juror may, notwithstanding such demand, be again called to sit on the jury if the panel has been exhausted after the first call on him to take his place. (4) A judge before whom a case is or may be heard may, in his discretion, on an application made by or on behalf of the parties (including in criminal cases the prosecution and the accused) or any of them, or at his own instance, make an order that the jury shall be composed of men only or of women only as the case may require, or may, on an application made by a woman to be exempted from service on a jury in respect of any case by reason of the nature of the evidence or of the issues to be tried, grant such exemption. 26 Juries