Short title.
New Section 7A of Ordinance
No. 3 of 1934.
Limit of time for prosecution. Ordinance No. 41 of 1932.
386
A BILL
INTITULED
[No. 9:-29.6.38.—2.]
An Ordinance to amend the Registration of Persons Ordinance,
1934.
BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Registration of Persons Amendment Ordinance, 1938.
2. The Registration of Persons Ordinance, 1934, is amended by the addition of the following section numbered 7A immediately after section 7 thereof :-
7A. Notwithstanding anything contained in section 20 of the Magistrates Ordinance, 1932, any complaint or information in respect of offence under this Ordinance may be made or laid within two years after the commission of the offence.
any
Objects and Reasons.
1. Owing to the provisions of section 20 of the Magistrates Ordinance, 1932, a person who commits an offence under the Registration of Persons Ordinance, No. 3 of 1934, cannot be proceeded against after the expiry of six months from the date on which the offence was committed, unless information has been laid or complaint made before that time.
2. Cases have occurred in which aliens who have failed to report their intended departure from the Colony, in contra- vention of section 2 (2) of the Ordinance, at Police Head- quarters, have, on returning to the Colony after the six- months' period, been immune from prosecution, the offence not having come to the notice of the authorities within the prescribed time.
3. Clause 2 of this Bill, by inserting a new section 7A in the principal Ordinance substituting a two-years' for the six-months' limitation, is intended to cure this defect.
4. Similar provisions are contained e.g., in section 38 (5) of the Opium Ordinance, No. 7 of 1932, and in England in section 28 (3) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1925 (15 and 16 Geo. 5 c. 86).
{
June, 1938.
J. A. FRASER,
Attorney General.
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