Establishment of General Registry and appointment of officers

(1) The office of the “Registrar General for the colony” provided under section 2 of the General Registry Act, Chapter 213 of the Consolidated Laws 1924, together with all its books, registers, records and equipment is hereby established a “General Registry” hereafter to be maintained and administered for the purposes defined, and in accordance with the provisions contained, in this Act, with such branches in other parts of Belize, as the Attorney General may from time to time consider necessary, the said purposes being– (a) the registering and recording of certificates of title, legal charges and incumbrances, leases, deeds and other documents required by law to be registered or recorded; (b) the preserving of all records in the General Registry maintained in Belize City at the commencement of this Act; and (c) the transacting, performing and exercising thereat by the Registrar and other officers of the several matters, duties and powers prescribed under and in accordance with this or any other Act. (2) The Registry shall be under and in the charge of the Registrar who shall be a fit and proper person appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. (3) The Judicial and Legal Services Commission may appoint a deputy registrar and such other fit and proper persons to be clerks, officers and messengers in the Registry as he deems 12 (4) The Judicial and Legal Services Commission may appoint a fit and proper person to act for the Registrar, the deputy registrar or any clerk or other officer when and so often as occasion requires in the event of the absence, sickness or other disability of any of them, and the acting officer shall have power and authority to do any act or thing which may lawfully be done by the officer for whom he is appointed to act. (5) During any temporary absence of the Registrar from the Registry, the deputy registrar shall be capable of performing all the duties and exercising all the powers of the Registrar under this or any other Act. (6) There shall be a seal carrying the words “General Registry of Belize” and of such design as may be approved by the Attorney General, which shall be kept in the possession of the Registrar at the Registry and be used by him in addition to his signature for the authentication of all certificates of titles, copies of documents and other instruments issued out of the (7) Until the seal is prepared, the seal presently used shall continue to be used for the purposes of this Act.