ADVOCATES AND SOLICITORS (AMENDMENT) BILL

3.54 p.m.

Order for Second Reading read.

Mr Barker: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

A number of provisions in this Bill seek only to make amendments of a formal nature, some of which are consequent on Singapore ceasing to be part of Malaysia whilst others are purely changes in name, such as the substitution of the word "Government" for "Crown", "Singapore" for "Colony", "the Commonwealth" for "Her Majesty's dominions", and "the President" for "Her Majesty in Council". References to the expression "British subject or British protected person" are also deleted.

Persons admitted as advocates and solicitors of the High Court are now no longer on admission required to take the oath of allegiance to Her Majesty. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill provides that if an applicant for admission as an advocate and solicitor has obtained a certificate from the University of Singapore or the University of Malaya that he has satisfactorily completed a post graduate practical course organised by the University, the requirement as to reading in Chambers, that is to say, receiving instruction in law from a practising advocate and solicitor of not less than seven years' standing, is for a period of six months only, whereas otherwise he would have had to read in Chambers for at least twelve months.

This Bill also removes the exemption hitherto granted to persons in the service of the Government from undergoing an oral examination which is conducted by the Attorney-General and two other advocates and solicitors before admission to the Bar.

It is now expressly provided that the annual certificate to practise issued by the Registrar of the High Court to advocates and solicitors shall run from the 1st of March to the last day of February in the following year. A transitional provision is contained in the Bill to the effect that the certificate to practise issued between the 1st of January, 1966, and the 28th February, 1967, shall be in force until the latter date.

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.