On 21/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 21/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 21/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 02/01/2011.
23.
—(1) Notwithstanding the neglect of any person to report or furnish information as to any birth or any death within the time required by this Act, it shall be the duty of the registrar or the deputy registrar to procure by all means within his power the best and most accurate information respecting any birth or death which has occurred within his area, and upon such information he shall make an entry of the birth or death in the manner hereinafter mentioned but not, in any case, until after the expiry of 42 days after the birth or 3 days after the death, as the case may be:
Provided that after the expiration of 12 months next after the birth of any child or after the expiration of one week next after any death or after the finding of any dead body elsewhere than in a house, the birth or death shall not be registered except with the written authority of the Registrar-General, who may in his discretion refuse or grant authorisation for registration in the manner in this section provided, and a note of the authorisation (if granted) shall be made in the register.
(2) Every such entry shall be made in a register specially kept for late registration, to be called the late register, and subject to subsections (3) and (4), section 25 shall apply to certified extracts of such entries in the like manner as they apply to certified extracts from an ordinary register.
(3) Every copy of an entry in a late register shall be in a form readily distinguishable from all other certified extracts, and shall have printed on it conspicuously the words “LATE REGISTRATION” and no copy so marked shall be receivable in evidence, as prescribed in section 25 unless the truth of the facts therein entered shall have been found by a Magistrate’s Court in a proceeding instituted before it under this section and the court has certified its findings in the register. Such a proceeding may be instituted by any person claiming to have an interest in substantiating the record and shall be brought by way of information and summons to be served on the registrar calling upon him to show cause why a certified copy of the entry should not be entitled to be received in evidence in the manner and to the extent provided by section 25.
(4) Where, under the provisions of the Legitimacy Act [Cap. 162] or any regulations made thereunder, any late register is used for the purpose of registering the birth of a legitimated person, every copy or extract of any entry relating to the re-registration, certified under the hand of the registrar for the time being to be a true copy or extract, shall be prima facie evidence in all courts and before all tribunals of the dates and facts contained or set forth in the copy or extract.
(5) The fact that any birth or death has been recorded or permitted to be recorded under subsection (1) or authenticated by a Magistrate’s Court under subsection (3) shall not affect the liability of any person to punishment under section 18.