§ 3-2-5 — § 3-2-5. Administration of oaths — Subpoena power — False swearing.

§ 3-2-5. Administration of oaths — Subpoena power — False swearing.

(a) The superintendents of the bureaus of importation and inspection are authorized to administer oaths in matters on formal hearing before them and also in connection with any matter having to do with the performance of their duties.

(b) The department in all cases before it is authorized and empowered to summon witnesses by subpoena signed by the director of the department and to compel those witnesses to attend and testify in the same manner as in either the supreme or the superior courts.

(c) The department is authorized to compel the production of all papers, books, documents, records, certificates or other legal evidence that may be necessary for the determination and the decision of any question or the discharge of any duty required by law of the department, by issuing a subpoena duces tecum signed by the director. Any person who disobeys that writ is considered in contempt of the department, and the department may punish that and any other contempt of its authority in the same manner as contempts may be punished in either the supreme or the superior court.

(d) Any person who willfully swears falsely in any proceeding, matter or hearing before the department is guilty of the crime of perjury.

Legislative History

P.L. 1933, ch. 2013, § 10; G.L. 1938, ch. 164, § 8; impl. am. P.L. 1939, ch. 660, § 123; G.L. 1956, § 3-2-5; P.L. 1996, ch. 100, art. 36, § 2.