Prima facie, case is made out

Question

Cuttack, Mar 4 (PTI) The court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate today took cognisance of the petition filed by Cuttack district administration against Athagarh MLA Ramesh Rout in connection with submitting false affidavits during election process. Admitting the petition of the sub-collector, the magistrate observed that prima facie a case is made out against the legislator and issued notice to the Independent MLA for a personal appearance in the court on April 5.

I know "prima facie" means "at first sight" but I wonder what it means here. Similarly I know "case" is a suit or action taking against someone but I can't understand "case is made out".

Source : http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100304/1416/tnl-court-takes-cognisance-of-case-again.html

Dave Phillips · Accepted Answer

The Magistrate said that at first sight there is enough evidence against the legislator.

Lawyee · Answer

Dave PhillipsThe Magistrate said that at first sight there is enough evidence against the legislator.

I am sorry to disagree a bit but this is my point of view:
The Magistrate said that in a preliminary stage there was enough information and evidence presented to instigate the proceedings against the legislator.
I believe that the Magistrate did not present any opinion about suffieciency of the evidence presented in order to decide "against" the legislator, as I believe that no magistrate could make such a statement at the early stage of the proceedings.
So the sentence should mean that after the preliminary investigation of the motion ("prima facie"), the presented information are sufficient to commence the proceedings ("to make out the case)

Dave Phillips · Answer

OK. You are right however I wonder if that make sense to the person asking the question.  I was trying to simplify the statement and take it context of the whole article so there was enought eveldence etc to continue the case is maybe what I should have said.  Legal language is complicated enough for those who have a mother tongue in the base language, so for those who have English as a second langauge and taking a direct quote from a newspaper must be hard.

Lawyee · Answer

Yes, I believe you are right about the complexity of the legal english - anyway, that is what is making it so interesting

I also liked your simplified version but it changed the meaning a bit. That is why I reacted. No offence meant

Lawyee

Prima facie, case is made out

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