CO129-610-6 Marriage (War Period) (Validity) Ordinance 1948 26-4-1948 - 25-6-1948 — Page 18

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THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

HỒNG KÔNG

No. 25 or 1948.

I assent.

Short title.

Ordinance No. of

1875.

Interpretation.

Application.

Validation

of marriages

celebrated during the war period.

Prevailing grounds of validity.

L.S.

A. G. GRANTHAM, Governor.

17th June, 1948.

An Ordinance to remove doubts as to the validity of certain marriages celebrated in the Colony of Hong Kong after the outbreak of hostilities with Japan.

[17th June, 1948.]

BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof:

1.

This Ordinance may be cited as the Marriage (War Period) (Validity) Ordinance, 1948, and shall be construed as one with the Marriage Ordinance, 1875, hereinafter referred to as the principal Ordinance.

2. In this Ordinance the following expressions shall have the meaning hereby assigned to them:

www.

war period means the period from the 8th of December, 1941, to the 15th of October, 1945;

Registrar" means the Registrar of Marriages under the principal Ordinance and includes a deputy registrar.

3.

Save as hereinafter appears this Ordinance shall apply to all marriages celebrated in the Colony during the war period except non-Christian customary marriages celebrated according to the personal law and religion of the parties.

4. A marriage celebrated in the Colony during the war period shall not be deemed invalid by reason of its having been celebrated in a place which had not been duly licensed under section 3 of the principal Ordinance or without compliance with the require- ments of such Ordinance concerning notice of marriage, 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 been declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction:

SUPPLEMENT NO. 1, JUNE 18, 1948.

Provided further that where any marriage to which this Ordinance applies 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.

ministers.

6. No minister who has complied with section 7 of this Relief against Ordinance shall be liable to any penalties under the principal penalties Ordinance in respect of any matter referred to in section 3 of this applicable to Ordinance and no 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 Certificate this Ordinance applies and who has not already given the parties by officiating a certificate in Form No. 5 in the Schedule to the principal minister. 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 he is unable to secure the signature of the two witnesses to the marriage and has no certificate with their signature in his 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 lieu 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.

8. A certificate in the form first referred to in section 7 of Effect of this Ordinance, whether given before or after the commencement certificate of of this Ordinance or a certificate in the form subsequently marriage referred to in the said section if countersigned by the Registrar issued by the

officiating shall, if given in respect of a marriage to which this Ordinance minister. applies, he 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.

9. (1) The Registrar shall collect and preserve in a register Duties of

may

in a convenient form such information in relation to marriages to the Registrar. which this Ordinance applies as has already been or 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 enter 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, forms 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;