The Bahama Islands (constitution) Order In Council 1963

• Author: Ralph Hone
• Pages: #1

S.I. 1963 No. 2084.

CARIBBEAN AND NORTH ATLANTIC TERRITORIES.

The Bahama Islands (Constitution) Order in Council 1963.

Made.................................20th December 1963

Laid before Parliament..............st January 1964

Coming into Operation... On a day to be appointed by the Governor under section 1(2) At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 20th day of December 1963

Present, The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council Her Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the powers vested in Her in that behalf by section 1 of the Bahama Islands (Constitution) Act 1963(a) is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows: 1.-(1) This Order may be cited as the Bahama citation Islands (Constitution) Order in Council 1963. commencement (2) This Order shall come into operation on such interpretation.

day as the Governor, acting in his discretion, may, by proclamation published in the Gazette appoint (hereinafter referred to as 'the appointed day'), which day shall not be earlier than the second day of January 1964.* (3) Unless the context otherwise requires, expressions used in sections 1 to 15 (inclusive) of this Order have the same meaning as in the Constitution of the Bahama Islands set out in the Schedule to this Order (hereinafter referred to as 'the Constitution') and the provisions of section 123 of the Constitution shall apply for the purposes of interpreting those sections as they apply for the purposes of interpreting the Constitution.

(a) 1963 c. 56.

* This Order came into operation on 7th January 1964 by Proclamation dated 4th January 1964.

B

Revocations.

Establishment of Constitution.

Existing laws.

2. The Bahama Islands Letters Patent 1909 and 1959(b) (hereinafter referred to as 'the existing Letters Patent') are revoked with effect from the appointed day.

3. Subject to the provisions of this Order, the Constitution shall come into force in the Bahama Islands on the appointed day.

4. -(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the existing laws shall continue in force after the commencement of this Order as if they had been made 'in pursuance thereof and notwithstanding the revocation of the existing Letters Patent but the existing laws shall be construed with such modifications, adaptations, qualifications and exceptions as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the Constitution.

   (2) Where any matter that falls to be prescribed or otherwise provided for under the Constitution by the Legislature or by any other authority or person is prescribed or provided for by or under an existing law (including any amendment, adaptation or modification to any such law made under this section) or is otherwise prescribed or provided for immediately before the commencement of this Order by or under the existing Letters Patent, that prescription or provision shall, as from the commencement of this Order, have effect as if it had been made under the Constitution by the Legislature or, as the case may be, by the other person or authority.

   (3) The Governor may by order made at any time within two years after the appointed day make such amendments, adaptations or modifications to any existing law as may appear to him to be necessary or expedient for bringing that law into conformity with the provisions of the Constitution or otherwise for giving effect or enabling effect to be given to those provisions.

   (4) The provisions of this section shall be without prejudice to any powers conferred by the Constitution or by any other law upon any person or authority to make provision for any matter, including the amendment or repeal of any existing law.

   (b) Rev. III, p. 23: S.R. & 0. 1909, p. 781; S.I. 1960 III, p. 4139.

   (5) Any resolution passed by the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly and in force immediately before the appointed day whereby it is provided that any revenues of the Bahama Islands shall constitute or be payable into a separate fund for any purpose shall, for the purposes of this section, have effect as if it were an existing law.

   (6) For the purposes of this section, the expression 'existing law' means any law, rule, regulation, order or other instrument made or having effect as if it had been made in pursuance of the existing Letters Patent and having effect as part of the law of the Bahama Islands immediately before the commencement of this Order.

5. -(1) Where any office has been established by Existing or under the existing Letters Patent or any existing law officers, and the Constitution establishes a similar equivalent office, any person who, immediately before the commencement of this Order, holds or is acting in the former office shall, so far as is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution, be deemed as from the commencement of this Order to have been appointed, elected or otherwise selected to or to act in the latter office in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and to have taken any necessary oath under the Constitution:

   Provided that any person who under the existing Letters Patent or any existing law would have been required to vacate his office at the expiration of any period or on the attainment of any age shall vacate his office at the expiration of that period or on the attainment of that age.

   (2) The provisions of this section shall be without prejudice to(a) the provisions of sections 6, 7, 8 and 9 of this Order; and (b) any powers conferred by or under this Order upon any person or authority to make provision for the abolition of offices and the removal of persons holding or acting in any office.

   (3) In this section 'existing law' means such a law as is referred to in section 4(6) of this Order.

6. -(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of Senate.

   this Order, the Legislative Council constituted under the existing Letters Patent shall, as from the appointed (2) Each member (not being a member holding public office) of the Legislative Council as constituted immediately before the appointed day shall as from that day be deemed to have been appointed by the Governor under the provisions of section 29(2)(a) of the Constitution as a Senator(a) in the case of any member appointed to the Legislative Council to hold office during Her Majesty's pleasure, for a term of ten years; or (b) in the case of any other member appointed for a term of years to the Legislative Council, for the remainder, beginning with the appointed day, of that term, and subject thereto he shall hold his seat in the Senate in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

   (3) Nothing in this section shall affect the rights of the Governor, or of the Premier or the leader of the opposition to advise the Governor, to fill any vacancies in the Senate which exist as from the appointed day.

   House of 7.-(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of Assembly. this Order, the General Assembly as constituted immediately before the appointed day (in this section referred to as 'the existing General Assembly') shall be the House of Assembly of the Bahama Islands during the period beginning with that day and ending with the first dissolution of the House of Assembly thereafter.

   (2) The persons who immediately before the appointed day are members of the existing General Assembly shall be members of the House of Assembly and shall as from that day be deemed to have been elected thereto in pursuance of the provisions of section 35 of the Constitution and shall hold their seats in that House in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution:

   Provided that if the seat of any member of the General Assembly is vacant immediately before the appointed day, or if the seat of any member of the House of Assembly falls vacant at any time before the dissolution of that House next following that day, a byelection shall be held in the constituency represented by that member in the manner provided by or under any law for the time being in force in the Bahama Islands.

   I

   (3) Until the dissolution of the House of Assembly next following the appointed day, section 35(1) of the Constitution shall have effect as if the proviso were omitted.

   (4) The persons who immediately before the appointed day are Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the existing General Assembly shall on that day be Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively of the House of Assembly and shall, as from that day, be deemed to have been elected as such in pursuance of section 39 of the Constitution and shall hold office in accordance with the provisions of that section.

   (5) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 59(2), but subject to the provisions of section 58, of the Constitution, the House of Assembly shall, unless sooner dissolved, stand dissolved on 6th December 1967.

   (6) During the period between the dissolution of the House of Assembly next following the appointed day and the dissolution of that House next following that dissolution, seventeen members from the Island of New Providence and twenty-one members from the remainder of the Bahama Islands shall be returned to the House of Assembly:

   Provided that each constituency existing in the said remainder of the Bahama Islands immediately before the appointed day shall return at least one member.

   (7) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 63 of the Constitution, the Constituencies Commission shall carry out a review and submit a report under that section within eighteen months after the appointed day or within one month after the dissolution of the House of Assembly next following the appointed day, whichever is the sooner.

   (8) If no draft Order has been submitted to the Governor under section 63 of the Constitution within two years of the appointed day or within one month after the dissolution of the House of Assembly next following the appointed day, whichever is the sooner, the Governor, acting in his discretion, may make an Order giving effect to the report, with such modifications as he shall think fit.

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