UK Legislation
10 December 1947
The Ceylon Independence Act, 1947
(title changed after Act was passed)
(11 Geo. VI, c. 7)
An Act to make provision for, and in connexion with, the attainment by Ceylon of fully responsible status within the British Commonwealth of Nations
BE it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the autho rity of the same, as follows–
1. (1) No Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on or after the appointed day shall extend, or be deemed to extend, to Ceylon as part of the law of Ceylon, unless it is expressly declared in that Act that Ceylon has requested, and consented to, the enact ment thereof.
(2) As from the appointed day His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom shall have no responsibility for the government of Ceylon.
(3) As from the appointed day the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the legislative powers of Ceylon.
2. As from the appointed day Ceylon shall be included in the definition of ‘Dominion’ in paragraph (23) of section one hundred and ninety of the Army Act and of the Air Force Act (which sec tion, in each Act, relates generally to the interpretation of the Act), and accordingly in the said paragraph (23), in each Act, for the words ‘and Newfoundland’ there shall be substituted the words ‘Newfoundland and Ceylon’
3 (1) No court in Ceylon shall, by virtue of the Indian and Colonial Divorce Jurisdiction Acts, 1926 and 1940, have jurisdiction in or in relation to any proceedings for a decree for the dissolution of a marriage, unless those proceedings were instituted before the appointed day, but, save as aforesaid and subject to any provision to the contrary which may hereafter be made by any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom or of Ceylon, all courts in Ceylon shall have the same jurisdiction under the said Acts as they would have had if this Act had not been passed.
(2) Any rules made on or after the appointed day under subsection (4) of section one of the Indian and Colonial Divorce Jurisdiction Act, 1926, for a court in Ceylon shall, instead of being made by the Secretary of State with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, be made by such authority as may be determined by the law of Ceylon, and so much of the said subsection and of any rules in force thereunder immediately before the appointed day as requires the approval of the Lord Chancellor to the nomination for any purpose of any judges of any such court shall cease to have effect.
(3) The references in subsection (1) of this section to proceedings for a decree for the dissolution of a marriage include references to proceedings for such a decree of presumption of death and dissolution of a marriage as is authorized by section eight of the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937.
originally called The Ceylon Independence Act, 1947