LEGITIMACY (AMENDMENT) BILL

3.49 p.m.

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Law and National Development (Mr E. W. Barker): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Legitimacy Ordinance was first enacted in Singapore in 1934 and, apart from a short amending Ordinance in 1940, the law relating to the legitimation of children born out of wedlock remains substantially the same.

[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]

The Minister for Law and National Development (Mr E. W. Barker): The principal amendment which the Bill now before the House seeks to bring about is the deletion of subsection (3) of section 3 of the Ordinance which provides that nothing in the Ordinance shall operate to legitimate a person whose father or mother was married to a third person when the illegitimate person was born. The Bill seeks to exclude the operation of this provision.

By another amendment, a reference to the Women's Charter, 1961, is added at the end of subsection (2) of section 3 which now provides that the Ordinance will not operate to legitimate a person unless the marriage leading to the legitimation was solemnized and registered in accordance with the provisions of the Christian Marriage Ordinance or the Civil Marriage Ordinance. The Bill now proposes that a reference to the Women's Charter, 1961, be added here.

The opportunity has been taken to make certain amendments of a formal nature: thus at subsection (1) of section 4, the expressions "natural-born British subject" and "Her Majesty" are to be deleted, and the expression "citizen of Singapore" and "the Government" respectively substituted in their place, and the term "the Colony" is to be replaced by the term "Singapore" wherever it appears in the Ordinance. The Bill also seeks to make the change in name from "State Advocate-General" to "Attorney-General".

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill.- [Mr Barker].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.