(1) If any person who has been subpoenaed to give evidence or to produce any book or document before a housing court fails to attend or to remain in attendance until duly excused by the housing court from further attendance, the housing court may, if it is satisfied upon oath or by the return of the person charged with the service of the subpoena that the subpoena was duly served upon such person, and if no sufficient excuse for such failure seems to it to exist, issue a warrant signed by the housing court for the apprehension of such person, and such person shall thereupon be apprehended by any police officer to whom such warrant is delivered and shall be brought before the housing court to give his evidence or to produce the book or document.
(2) If any person who has been subpoenaed to give evidence or to produce any book or document before a housing court refuses without sufficient excuse, the onus of proof whereof shall rest upon him, to be sworn as a witness or, having been sworn, to answer fully and satisfactorily any question lawfully put to him, or to produce any such book or document, the housing court may order that person to be removed and detained in custody, as if he were a prisoner awaiting trial, until the rising of the housing court or until he sooner consents to do what is required of him.
(3) Nothing in this section contained shall prevent the housing court from giving judgment in any case or otherwise disposing of the same in the meantime according to any other sufficient evidence taken but, if such judgment be given or the case be otherwise disposed of, any person committed to prison in terms of subsection (2) shall thereupon be released.
(4) Any person referred to in subsection (1) or (2) shall be liable, in addition to being detained in custody in terms of subsection (2), to be sentenced summarily by the housing court to pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars or, in default of payment, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month.
(5) No person shall be bound to produce any document or thing not specified or otherwise insufficiently described in the subpoena unless he actually has it in the housing court.