Section 31 — Certifying officer and appellate authority to have powers of civil court.

31(1)

Every certifying officer and the appellate authority referred to in section 32 shall have all the powers of a civil court for the purposes of receiving evidence, administering oath, enforcing the attendance of witnesses, and compelling the discovery and production of documents, and shall be deemed to be a civil court within the meaning of sections 345 and 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).