Section 25Part 0 —
Objections to a marriage, how to be made and dealt with
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Any person may notify his objection to an intended marriage by giving notice of objection to the Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer publishing the notice of banns.
A Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer shall disregard all objections to an intended marriage not appearing on the face of the notice, unless —
they are stated prior to the issuing of the certificate of publication:
they are stated in writing by the person making the same; and
the person making the same appears personally to lodge the same with the Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer, and in his presence makes and subscribes a declaration as nearly as may be in the form set forth in Schedule H, which the Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer shall endorse on the written statement of objection.
With regard to objections timely and duly made, the following shall apply —
Where the objection does not set forth a legal impediment to a marriage between the parties intending to solemnise marriage, or a refusal of consent on the part of any person whose consent is required to such marriage, the Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer shall suspend the issue of his certificate pending decision upon the objection, and shall consider the objection and make such enquiry thereabout as he sees fit, and himself decide thereupon.
Where the objection sets forth a legal impediment to a marriage between the parties, or a refusal of consent on the part of any person whose consent is required to such marriage, the Civil Registrar or Marriage Officer shall refer the matter to a Judge of the Grand Court (who shall decide upon the same in as summary a way and as expeditiously as the circumstances of the case will permit), and shall suspend the issue of his certificate until he receives a certified copy of the Judge’s decision to the effect that the parties are not, in respect of the said objection, disqualified from contracting such marriage, or where the objection is in the nature of a refusal of consent that such refusal is unreasonable and ought not to interfere with such marriage.
If it appears to the Judge that the objection, in case of an objection to a marriage, was frivolous and vexatious, he may condemn the party making it to pay, in addition to costs and all civil damages to which he may be liable, a fine not exceeding forty dollars, to be enforced in the same way as a judgement of the Grand Court.