§ Section 153 of the Judicature Act 1925 (which limits the district probate registries in which second and subsequent grants of probate and administration may be made) shall cease to have effect.—[The Solicitor-General.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ 3.49 p.m.
§ The Solicitor-General (Sir Arthur Irvine)I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
The effect of the Clause will be to repeal Section 153 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1925. That section was designed to ensure that an application for a second or subsequent grant should not be applied for except at a registry which has the papers relating to the original grant, or, in the case of the Principal Probate Registry, a copy of the original grant and will. The instances of subsequent grants were most usually grants de bonis non, that is, grants in cases where an executor died leaving portions of the estate unadministered and there was no chain of executorship. In these days, when the copying of documents is such a simple task, the reason for Section 153 has disappeared, and the Section remains purely as a source of administrative problems. These arise when records are transferred from a registry which has been closed to what is now a sub-registry.
Since neither that sub-registry nor its parent district probate registry has power to issue a second grant, it means that in those cases the second or subsequent application has to be made to the Principal 768 Probate Registry in London. The repeal of Section 153 means that this will not happen in future.
Mr. Speaker, you mentioned that Amendments Nos. 16 and 17 could be considered with the new Clause. Amendment No. 16 places Section 153 in the Schedule of repeals and the other Amendment makes the necessary alteration to the Long Title.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.