The Magistrates' Courts (Custodianship Orders) (Amendment) Rules 1989

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Magistrates' Courts (Custodianship Orders) Rules 1985. Paragraph (b) of rule 3 replaces, in relation to adoption, guardianship or custody applications treated as applications for custodianship orders, the requirement that the Court should make a defendant to an application so treated every person who would have been a defendant to a complaint for a custodianship order, by a discretion to make a defendant any such person as the court thinks appropriate. Paragraph (a) of rule 3 clarifies the wording of rule 4 of the 1985 Rules to make it clear that in the case of an application so treated it is not necessary for the person deemed to be an applicant to provide a medical report in relation to the child. Rule 4 deletes references in the 1985 rules to illegitimacy, thereby reflecting the general principle stated in section 1 of the Family Law Reform Act 1987 that references to any relationship between two persons shall be construed without regard to whether the father or mother of either of them have been married to each other at any time.