Australian Capital Territory Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES ACT 1963

TABLE OF PROVISIONS

           Table of Amendments
           Long Title

   PART I--PRELIMINARY

   1.      This Act may be cited as the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1963.1  
   2.      This Act shall come into operation on the date fixed by Proclamation under subsection (2) of section two of the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth.1  
   4.      (1) The Ordinances specified in the First Schedule to this Act are repealed.  
   5.      (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—“acknowledgement of paternity” means an acknowledgement of paternity made in accordance with subsection 10 (1) of the Birth (Equality of Status) Act 1988 or in accordance with a corresponding law; “body” means the body of a dead person; “child” includes a child not born alive—  

   PART II--ADMINISTRATION

   8.      (1) The Registrar-General shall keep registers, to be called the Register of Births, the Register of Parentage Information, the Register of Deaths and the Register of Marriages, respectively.  
   9.      (1) It is the duty of the Registrar-General to procure information concerning every birth, death and marriage occurring in the Territory.  
   10.     The Registrar-General shall, in exercising any power conferred on him by this Act, comply with any directions given him by the Minister as to the manner or circumstances in which the power is to be exercised.  

   PART III--REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS

   11.     (1) The Registrar-General shall register in the Register of Births—  
   12.     (1) Where a child is born in a hospital, or is admitted to a hospital shortly after birth, the officer in charge of the hospital shall give the Registrar-General written notice of the child's birth within 2 days after the date of birth.  
   13.     (1) Where a child is born in a hospital, or is admitted to a hospital shortly after birth—  
   14.     (1) Where a new-born child is found exposed or abandoned, the person who discovers the child shall, unless he is a member of the Police Force, forthwith report the discovery to such a member.  
   15.     (1) Where a parent of a child or the occupier of the premises in which a child was born furnishes any particulars required to be entered in the Register of Births in relation to the child after the expiration of twenty-eight days from the day on which the child was born, the parent or occupier shall make and furnish to the Registrar-General a statutory declaration verifying those particulars.  
   16.     (1) The Registrar-General may register the birth of a child born outside the Territory if—  
   18.     (1) The name to be entered in the Register of Births as the surname of a child is the name nominated by one or both parents of the child and specified as the surname of the child in the particulars furnished to the Registrar-General in relation to the child pursuant to subsection 13 (1), being—  
   19.     (1) Where, after the birth of a child has been registered in the Territory—  
   20.     (1) A person whose name appears in the Register of Births as the name of a parent of a child may, by instrument in writing in accordance with Form 2 in the Fourth Schedule, change the child's surname—  
   21.     (1) A person who has attained the age of 18 years may, by signing an instrument in accordance with Form 3, change his name or any of his names (including a first or christian name).  
   22.     (1) Where the Registrar-General is satisfied that the name of a person whose birth is registered in the Register of Births has been lawfully changed (whether within or outside the Territory), the Registrar-General may, on payment of the determined fee cause particulars of the change of name to be entered on the page of the Register of Births containing the entry of the birth of that person.  
   23.     Nothing in this Division shall be taken to prevent a change in a person's name from being effected in any manner in which the change could lawfully have been effected immediately before the commencement of this Act.  
   24.     (1) A medical practitioner who has examined the body of a child not born alive—  
   25.     (1) A person shall not dispose of the body of a child not born alive unless—  

   PART IV--REGISTRATION OF DEATHS

   26.     (1) The Registrar-General shall register in the Register of Deaths—  
   27.     (1) The occupier of the premises in which a person has died shall, within fourteen days after the day on which the person died, furnish to the Registrar-General—  
   28.     (1) Where a person dies, whether within or outside the Territory—  
   32.     Where the death of a person has been reported to the Coroner, particulars of the cause of death shall not be stated in the entry of the death in the Register of Deaths unless the Registrar-General has received a notification of the findings of the Coroner, that the Coroner has adjourned the inquest, or is not to proceed further with, an inquest.  
   34.     (1) Where a person who has died was attended during his last illness by a medical practitioner or where a child who has died within twenty-eight days after birth was attended by a medical practitioner during that period, the medical practitioner—  
   35.     (1) A person shall not bury, or cause to be buried, the body of a person unless he has received—  
   36.     A medical practitioner who is required by subsection (5) of section thirty-four of this Act to report the death of a person to the Coroner shall not, without the consent of the Coroner, deliver to the occupier of the building or place where the death occurred the notice referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) or in paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of that section, as the case may be, with respect to the death.  
   37.     An undertaker who buries a body shall forthwith give notice of the burial to the Registrar-General by delivering to the Registrar-General a certificate, in accordance with Form 8, signed—  
   38.     Where the Registrar-General has registered the death of a person in the Register of Deaths, the Registrar-General may grant a certificate, in accordance with Form 9, stating the date on which the death of the person was registered.  
   39.     (1) A person shall not remove the body of a person from the Territory unless he has received—  

   PART V--REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES

   40.     The Registrar-General shall register in the Register of Marriages all marriages solemnised in the Territory other than marriages to or in relation to which Division 3 of Part IV of the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth applies.  
   41.     (1) The Registrar-General shall—  
   42.     A marriage shall be taken to be registered in the Register of Marriages kept under this Act when the Registrar-General has complied with paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of the last preceding section in relation to the official certificate of the marriage, whether or not that official certificate has been bound in a volume.  
   43.     (1) Where the Registrar-General receives a notification under the hand of the Registrar-General, or another appropriate officer, of a court of Australia stating that a marriage solemnised in the Territory on a specified date between specified parties has been dissolved or annulled by a decree or order of that court made on a specified date, the Registrar-General shall cause to be written in the Register of Marriages, on the page of the register containing the entry of that marriage, a notation of the dissolution or annulment of the marriage.  

   PART VI--REGISTRATION OF LEGITIMATIONS AND PARENTAGE INFORMATION

   44.     (1) Subject to this section, where information with respect to the legitimation of a person whose birth is registered in the Register of Births is furnished to the Registrar-General by the persons or the person required under the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth to furnish that information, the Registrar-General shall, if he has no reason to believe that the person is not a legitimated child and that the information is not true and correct, re-register the birth of the person in the Register of Births in accordance with this Part.  
   45.     (1) Re-registration of the birth of a person under the last preceding section shall be effected—  
   46.     Where the birth of a person has been re-registered in the Register of Births in pursuance of section forty-four of this Act, the Registrar-General shall not issue to that person or to any other person a copy of or an extract from the original entry of the birth of that person unless the Registrar-General is satisfied that the copy or extract is properly required as evidence of a fact of which a copy of, or extract from, the entry of the birth of the person made in pursuance of that section would not be evidence.  
   46B.    46B. Where—  
   46F.    46F. An application may be made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of a decision of the Registrar-General refusing to issue a certified copy under section 46D.  

   PART VII--TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

   47.     (1) Subject to this section, this Act applies to and in relation to every birth and death that occurred in the Territory before the date of commencement of this Act and was not, immediately before that date, registered under the Repealed Ordinances, in like manner as it applies to births and deaths occurring on or after that date and as if it had been in force on the day on which the birth or death occurred.  
   48.     (1) The Repealed Ordinances continue to apply, notwithstanding their repeal, to and in relation to the registration of every marriage solemnized in the Territory before the date of commencement of this Act that had not been registered before that date, but, upon the registration of such a marriage, this Act applies to and in relation to the entry of the marriage in the Register of Marriages as if it had been made under this Act.  

   PART VIII--MISCELLANEOUS

   49.     (1) The Registrar-General shall have a stamp, the design of which shall be determined by the Minister.  
   50.     The Registrar-General shall keep an index of the entries in each register kept by him under this Act.  
   51.     (1) Subject to this section, the Registrar-General shall, on receiving an application under this section together with the determined fee, cause a search to be made in the appropriate index and register and issue to the applicant—  
   52.     (1) Where the Registrar-General is satisfied that the Register of Births or the Register of Deaths kept under this Act contains an error or mis-statement in, or an omission from, any particulars entered in it, he may correct the register by causing the true particulars, or the particulars omitted from the register, as the case may be, to be entered in the register on the page of the register containing the entry of the birth or death, as the case may be, to which those last-mentioned particulars relate.  
   53.     (1) The last preceding section applies to and in relation to an error or mis-statement in, or omission from, the Register of Marriages kept under this Act in respect of the particulars of a marriage solemnized in the Territory before the commencement of this Act, as if—  
   54.     (1) Where the Registrar-General is satisfied that an entry of a birth, death or marriage in a register kept under this Act is false, he may cancel the entry by writing in the margin of the entry the words “Cancelled under section fifty-four of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1963”, signing his name immediately under those words and adding the date on which the entry was cancelled.  
   55.     (1) A register kept under section eight of this Act is evidence—  
   56.     (1) Where a marriage between parties of whom one at least is a person whose ordinary place of residence is in the Territory is intended to be solemnized in a country outside Australia—  
   57.     (1) A person who is required by this Act, or by the Registrar-General under section nine of this Act, to furnish to the Registrar-General any particulars in relation to a birth or death shall not—  
   58.     Where a person contravenes or fails to comply with a provision of this Act and a penalty for a contravention of, or failure to comply with, that provision is not expressly provided, the person is guilty of an offence against this Act punishable, upon conviction, by a fine not exceeding Five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.  
   59.     Strict compliance with the Forms contained in the Fourth Schedule is not necessary and substantial compliance is sufficient.  
   60.     Nothing in this Act affects the right of a minister of religion to require or receive a fee for or in respect of the performance of the religious rite of baptism or burial.  
   61.     Nothing in this Act shall be taken to affect the operation of the Adoption of Children Ordinance 1938-1949.  
   62.     The Minister may, by notice in writing published in the Gazette, determine fees for the purposes of this Act.  
           ENDNOTES