1948-HKRS29-8-15_Part02 — Page 19

Prevailing grounds of validity.

Relief ogainst penalles applicable to ministers.

Certificate

of notice, licence or competency of the officiating minister and subject as is herein provided, all such marriages are hereby declared to be and always to have been valid.

5. Nothing in this Ordinance shall validate any marriage which was invalid on the ground of kindred or affinity, or because one of the parties was under the age of sixteen years, or any marriage which would have been invalid notwithstanding com- pliance with all the requirements of the said Ordinance, or any. marriage which before the commencement of this Ordinance has bees declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction: Provided further that where any warringe to which this Ordinance applier would, but for this Ordinance, have been invalid and either party has subsequently during the life of the other party, but before the commencement of this Ordinance, lawfully married any other person, this Ordinance shall not render the first marriage valid or affect the validity of the subsequent marriage.

G. No minister who has complied with sention 7 of this Ordinance shall be liable to any penalties under the principal Ordinance in respect of any matter referred to in section 3 of this Ordinance and to proceedings shall be taken without the consent of the Attorney General against a minister who has not so complied in respect of a marriage to which this Ordinance applies.

7. Every minister who has officiated at a marriage to which by officiating this Ordinance applies and who has not already given the parties riirüster u certificate in Form No. 5 in the Schedule to the principal Ordinance shall, at the request of either party, give such a certificate; Provided that if such minister satisfies the Registrar that he is unable to give such a certificate because be is unable to secure the signature of the two witnesses to the marriage and bas no certificate with their signature in big possession or because he is unable to obtain information necessary to enable him to complete the certificate, it shall suffice if the officiating minister, with the consent of the Registrar, gives a certificate which, in lion of being signed by two witnesses of the marriage, states the names of two such witnesses and gives such information as he and the parties or either of them are able to supply.

Effect of

certificate of marriage issued by the officiating minister.

Dwie of

8. A certificate in the form first referred to in section 7 of this Ordinance, whether given before or after the commencement of this Ordinance or a certificate in the form subsequently referred to in the said section if countersigned by the Registrar shull, if given in respect of a marriage to which this Ordinance applies, be admissible as evidence of the marriage to which the same relates in any court or before any person having by law or by consent of parties authority to receive evidence.

or may

#. (1) The Registrar shall collect and preserve in a register the Registrar. in a convenient form such information in relation to marriages to

which this Ordinance applies as has already been subsequently be, furnished to him, and shall for a fee of five dollars supply any person requiring it with the information in his possession regarding a particular marriage.

(2) The Registrar shall euter in a convenient place in such register the fact of his consent in any particular case to the form of certificate secondly referred to in section 7, and shall note on such certificate that his consent was obtained and sign the

same.

10. The Governor in Council may make regulations prescrib. Regulations. ing-

(a) rules, forins and fees for any application by an officiating minister for the Registrar's consent under section 7 of this Ordinance and for information under section 9;

(5) for further cases in which an officiating minister should be relieved from penalties notwithstanding that he has been unable to give any certificate under section 7;

(c) generally for carrying this Ordinance into effect.

Passed the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, this 16th day of Jude, 1948.

Alastair Too

Deputy Clerk of Councils.