Mauritius
Civil Status Act
Act 23 of 1981
- Commenced on 1 January 1982
- [This is the version of this document at 30 June 2017.]
Part I – Preliminary
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Civil Status Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act—"authorised person" means a person to whom an authority is issued under section 26;"birth" means the issuing forth of a child, dead or alive, from its mother after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy;"Central Civil Status Office" means the Civil Status Office set up in Port Louis and designated as such;"certificate", in relation to any birth, death, marriage or any other civil status matter, means— (a)a certified extract of a manuscript entry in a register; or(b)a certified print out from a computer system;"Chagos Archipelago civil status records" means such copies as may have been duly certified by the Chief Officer of the Civil Status in the Seychelles of official documents recording the births, deaths and marriages that took place in the Chagos Archipelago from 1965 to 1973;"computer system" means any computer system specified in section 3 and used for the purpose of recording, processing and storing any civil status matter;"copy", in relation to any entry, means a certified photocopy of the entry;"CPD" means the Central Population Database established under section 8B;"CSD" means the Civil Status Database established under section 8A;"District Court Cash Office" means the cashier's office situated on the same premises as a District Court;"entry"—(a)means a manuscript entry in a register or an input on a computer system recording a civil status matter and containing such particulars as may be specified in this Act; and(b)includes the particulars of births, deaths and marriages in the Chagos Archipelago civil status records;"infectious or contagious disease"—(a)means a disease prescribed under the Public Health (Infectious or Communicable Diseases) Regulations 1987; but(b)does not include Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) Infection and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS);"marriage" means a civil or religious marriage;"Minister" means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of civil status matters is assigned;"Muslim Family Council" means the Council established under section 29;"NIC number" means the number generated by the Civil Status Database;"office" means a Civil Status Office;"officer" means a Civil Status Officer and includes any person appointed under section 4;"register"—(a)means any register required to be kept under section 5 in relation to the registration of any civil status matter; and(b)includes—(i)any input on a computer system;(ii)any print out from a computer system bound together so as to constitute a register;"unauthorised person" means a person recognised by his religion as having authority to celebrate marriages according to his religion and who, for a marriage, is assisted in accordance with section 28.[S. 2 amended by Act 9 of 1984; Act 2 of 1987; Act 45 of 1990; Act 8 of 1997; s. 3 of Act 40 of 2001 w.e.f. 1 September 2003; s. 3 of Act 22 of 2004; s. 2 (a) of Act 1 of 2008 w.e.f. 12 April 2008.]Part II – General provisions
3. Registrar of Civil Status
4. Officers in islands other than Mauritius
4A. Births, deaths and marriages in Chagos Archipelago
5. Registers
6. Registration of judicial orders
7. Officers not to act in certain cases
No officer shall register—8. Entries
8A. Civil Status Database
8B. Setting up of Central Population Database
8C. Access to CPD
The Registrar of Civil Status shall grant access to the CPD to any Ministry and Government department in such manner and to such extent as may be prescribed.[S. 8C inserted by s. 5 of Act 40 of 2001 w.e.f. 16 September 2013.]9. Copies of entries and certificates
10. Evidence
11. Validity of civil status documents
Part III – Registration of birth
12. Declaration of birth
13. Contents of entry
14. Responsibility for declaration of birth
15. Birth on Mauritian ship or aircraft
16. ***
17. Finding of newborn child
Part IV – Marriage
A – Civil marriage
18. Application of Sub-Part
A civil marriage shall be governed by the Code Civil Mauricien and this Sub-Part.19. No marriage before publication
19A. Marriage of non-citizen to a citizen
20. Publication of proposed civil marriage
21. Publication how made
Publication of a civil marriage shall—22. Objections to marriage
23. Time of civil marriage
24. Proceeding at celebration
24A. Marriage of non-citizens
24B. Marriage within the prison compound
B – Religious marriage having effect as civil marriage
25. Application of Sub-Part
A religious marriage with civil effect shall be governed by the Code Civil Mauricien and this Sub-Part.26. Authority to celebrate religious marriage with civil effect
27. Marriage by authorised person
28. Marriage by unauthorised person
29. Establishment of Muslim Family Council
30. Duties of Council
The Council—31. Communication of provisional decree to Muslim Family Council
Where in the course of divorce proceedings, the parties declare that they were married by a Muslim priest under Sub-Part B and the Supreme Court grants a provisional decree of divorce, the Registrar of the Court shall inform the Muslim Family Council accordingly and the Council shall take such action as it may deem appropriate.[S. 31 added by Act 45 of 1990.]32. ***
C – General
33. Celebration of religious marriage
Except in the case of a marriage celebrated in accordance with Muslim rites, no religious marriage shall be celebrated unless—34. Publication of marriage celebrated abroad
Where a person intends to be married outside Mauritius and, under the law of that place, it is necessary that the publication of the marriage be made in Mauritius, the publication shall be made at the Central Civil Status Office in the same manner as if the marriage were to be celebrated in Port Louis.35. Fees for marriages
36. Annotation of marriage in register
Part V – Death
37. Interment, cremation or immersion at sea
38. Registration of death
39. Contents of entry
40. Registration in special circumstances
41. Death in institutions and similar places
42. Certificate of cause of death
43. Death in quarantine stations
44. Death on board Mauritian ship or aircraft
45. Unidentified dead bodies and human remains
46. ***
[S. 46 repealed by Act 8 of 1997.]47. Registration after disposal of body
48. Death outside Mauritius
Where a person has died outside Mauritius and the body is brought to Mauritius for disposal, an officer may, on production to him of a certificate from a Health Inspector that there is no objection to the disposal, issue a permit authorising the disposal.Part VI – Amendment of entries
49. Multiple entries of birth
Where the birth of any person is registered more than once, the Registrar of Civil Status shall cause all the entries but one to be cancelled.[S. 49 amended by Act 9 of 1984.]50. Amendment of entries
51. Powers of Attorney-General
52. Amendment to be annotated in margin
The order or judgment authorising the amendment of an entry shall be recorded verbatim in the appropriate register and a summary of the amendment shall be made in the margin of the entry in every register in which the entry has been registered.53. Completion of incomplete entries
54. Amendment of entries by Court after trial
Part VII – Change of name
55. Application for change of name
Any Mauritian citizen may petition the Attorney-General for leave to make any change to his names.56. Notice of application in Gazette
57. Attorney-General may authorise change
Where—58. Registration of change of name
59. Registrar of Civil Status to rectify entries
Where a notice authorising a change of name has been published under section 58 (1), the Registrar of Civil Status shall inscribe in the margin of the entry of birth of the applicant in the appropriate register and of any other entry concerning the application in any other register, the change authorised by the notice.[S. 59 amended by Act 9 of 1 984.]Part VIII – Miscellaneous
60. Acknowledgment of natural child
61. Costs
The Ministère Public or the Government shall not incur any costs nor be liable to any damages with respect to civil status matters.62. Fees
63. Specific offences by officers
63A. Other offences
Any person who, without lawful authority—64. Offences by authorised persons
Any authorised person who makes an entry on a loose sheet or registers a marriage otherwise than in conformity with this Act shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding 2,000 rupees and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.65. Destruction or damage to documents
Every officer or other person who wilfully destroys or damages or permits or causes to be destroyed or damaged any register or any document relating to civil status shall commit an offence.66. Counterfeiting and altering documents
Any person not being an officer who—67. Failure to transmit acknowledgments
Any notary or other public officer authorised by law to draw up a deed of acknowledgment, shall, within 7 days of drawing up of the deed, transmit a copy of the deed to the Registrar of Civil Status and if he fails to do so, he shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding 2,000 rupees.[S. 67 amended by Act 9 of 1984.]68. False statements or declarations
Any person who—69. Offences in respect of children
70. Concealment of birth
71. Disposal of dead body
Any person who buries or otherwise disposes of any human body—72. Concealment of dead body
73. Penalties
Any person who contravenes this Act shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable, where no other penalty is provided, to a fine not exceeding 2,000 rupees and to penal servitude for a term not exceeding 3 years.74. Past religious marriages
75. Regulations
76. ***
77. ***
History of this document
30 June 2017 this version
Consolidation
01 January 1982
Commenced