Cap. 16 Art. 269Adopted Persons Register.

(1) There shall be maintained at the Public Registry

Office in Malta and in Gozo a register, to be called the Adopted Persons Register, in which shall be made such entries as may be directed to be made therein by adoption decrees, but no other entries.

(2) In the Adopted Persons Register maintained at the Public

Registry Office in Malta there shall be entered the adoption decrees relating to any person whose act of birth is registered in that Office or is not registered in any Public Registry Office in these Islands, and in the Adopted Persons Register maintained at the Public Registry Office in Gozo, there shall be entered the adoption decrees relating to any person whose act of birth is registered in that Office.

(3) Where an entry in the Adopted Persons Register contains a record of the date of the birth or the country or the town or village of the birth of the adopted person, a certified copy of that entry shall, until the contrary is proved, be received as evidence of that date or country or town or village in all respects as if the copy were a certified copy of an act of birth.

(4) The Director of the Public Registry shall cause an index of the Adopted Persons Register to be made and kept in the Public Registry Office in Malta and in Gozo; and every person shall be entitled to search that index and to have a certified copy of any entry signed by the Director in the Adopted Persons Register in all respects upon and subject to the same conditions as to payment of fees and otherwise as are applicable under this mutatis mutandis Title, in respect of searches in the register books kept in the Public Registry and in respect of the supply from that Office of certified copies or translations of entries in the register books of the acts of birth, marriage and death.

(5) The Director of the Public Registry shall, in addition to the Adopted Persons Register and the index thereof, keep such other registers and books, and make such entries therein, as may be necessary to record and make traceable the connection between an entry in the register book of acts of birth which has been marked "Adopted" pursuant to article 125 or article 290, and any corresponding entry in the Adopted Persons Register; but the registers and books kept under this sub-article, the adoption decrees and any amendment thereof communicated to the Director of the Public Registry, and any index thereof shall not be open to public inspection or search, and nor shall the Director of the Public Registry furnish any information contained in or any copy or extract from any such registers, books or decrees to any person, except under an order of a court or in exceptional cases, to any public officer duly authorised for that purpose by the Minister.