1956-HKRS28-8-23_Part02 — Page 46

7

Proceed-

ings for

of

presump tion of death and dissolution of

separation or the said order as sufficient proof of the adultery, desertion, or other ground on which it was granted, but the court shall not pronounce a decree of dissolution of marriage without receiving evidence from the petitioner.

(3) For the purposes of any such petition for dis- solution of marriage, a period of desertion immediately preceding the institution of proceedings for a decree of judicial separation or an order under the said Ordinance having the effect of such a decree shall, if the parties have not resumed cohabitation and the decree has been continuously in force since the grant- ing thereof, be deemed immediately to precede the presentation of the petition for dissolution of marriage.

11B. (1) Any married person who alleges that decree xisi reasonable grounds exist for supposing that the other party to the marriage is dead may, if he is domiciled in the Colony, present a petition to the court to have it presumed that the other party is dead and to have the marriage dissolved, and the court, if satisfied that such reasonable grounds exist, may make a decree misi of presumption of death and of dissolution of the marriage.

marriage.

(2) In any such proceedings the fact that for a period of seven years or upwards the other party to the marriage has been continually absent from the petitioner, and the petitioner has no reason to believe that the other party has been living within that time, shall be evidence that he or she is dead until the contrary is proved.

(3) Sections 16 and 44 of this Ordinance shall apply to a petition and a decree under this section as they apply to a petition for dissolution of marriage and a decree of dissolution of marriage respectively.

(4) In determining for the purposes of this section whether a woman is domiciled in the Colony, her husband shall be treated as having died immediately after the last occasion on which she knew or bad reason to believe him to be living. ".

replace. ment of sections

10. Sections (2 and 13 of the principal Ordinance are repealed Repeal and and replaced by the following sections--

"Petition for nullity of

marriage.

Grounds of decree.

12. A husband or wife may present a petition to 12 and 13. the court praying that his or her marriage may be declared null and void on any of the grounds men- tioned in section 13.

13. (1) A marriage shall be void on any of the following grounds-

(a) that the parties are within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity, whether natural or legal;

(b) that either party was a lunatic or idiot at the

time of the marriage;

(e) that the former husband or wife of either party was living at the time of the marriage and the marriage with such former husband or wife was then in force;

(d) that the consent of either party to the marriage was obtained by force or fraud in any case in which the marriage might be annulled on this ground by the law of England;

(e) that the marriage is invalid by the law of the

Colony,

(2) A marriage shall be voidable on any of the following grounds-

(a) that the respondent was impotent at the time of the marriage and at the time of the institu- tion of the suit;

(b) that the marriage has not been consummated owing to the wilful refusal of the respondent

to consummate the marriage; or

(e) that either party to the marriage was at the time of the marriage of unsound mind or subject to recurrent fits of insanity or epilepsy; or

(d) that the respondent was at the time of the marriage suffering from venereal disease in a communicable form; or