BURIALS ORDINANCE *

[CAP. 17. 1

BURIALS

CHAPTER 17

BURIALS ORDINANCE *

To prohibit the burial of corpses in certain places and to make other

provisions in connection therewith.

(10th May, 1869) †

ORDINANCE II of 1869, as amended by Ordinance V of 1873; Act IV of

1955; Legal Notice 4 of l963; Acts: III of 1974, XXII and XXXVI of 1975,

XI of 1977, IX of 1982, XIII of 1983 and Legal Notice 407 of 2007.

This Ordinance may be cited as the Burials Ordinance.

(1) The cemetery constructed upon the hill situate within

the limits of Tarxien, to the right of the slope called Tal-Palma,

shall be the main burial place in Malta and every Maltese citizen

shall be entitled to be buried in the said cemetery in accordance

with the provisions of this Ordinance and of any other relevant law.

(2) Such cemetery shall be called "The Santa Maria Addolorata

Cemetery".

(1) It shall be lawful for any person to apply, in writing, to

the Superintendent of Public Health for the grant of a site, of the

extent of two and one-half metres in length and one metre and five

centimetres in width, in such part of any cemetery belonging to the

Government, as, according to a plan made by the Superintendent of

Public Health, is appointed for the construction of private graves,

for the purpose of constructing thereon, at his expense, a grave,

upon payment in respect of such site of the sum of fifty-eight euros

and twenty-three cents (58.23).

(2) The said dimensions shall include such parts of the site as

have already, according to the provisions of articles 7 and 8, been

occupied by dividing walls constructed by others.

(3) From time to time the Superintendent of Public Health may

cause to be constructed private graves on unappropriated sites for

d i s p o s a l t o a p p l i c a n t s t h e r e f o r. O n a n a p p l i c a t i o n f o r t h e

acquisition of a constructed grave, and if such a constructed grave

is available, the Superintendent of Public Health shall require the

applicant to pay a sum of sixty-five euros and eighty cents (65.80)

that shall be inclusive of the consideration for the site.

(4) No such application shall be considered unless it is

accompanied by a deposit of the appropriate sum in the office of

the Superintendent of Public Health and by a declaration signed by

the applicant to the effect that neither he nor any member of his

family is the owner of any grave or site for a grave in any

Government cemetery

*See also the Addolorata Cemetery Ordinance (Chapter 18) and Part VI of the Code of

Police Laws (Chapter 10).

†See Proclamation No. 1 of the 10th May, 1869.

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Provided that the said Superintendent may, where he is

satisfied of the real needs of the applicant, grant exemption from

the production of the said declaration.

For the purpose of this subarticle, "family" means the father, the

mother, the husband or wife, any brother, sister, son or daughter of

the applicant.

(5) The amounts of money expressed in subarticles (1) and (3)

may be varied from time to time by the Minister responsible for

public health by means of a notice in the Government Gazette

referable to a period commencing not earlier than four weeks from

the date of the notice.

(1) No person may transfer to any other person any grave

or site for a grave in any Government cemetery without the prior

approval of the Superintendent of Public Health.

(2) The said Superintendent may subject his approval to the

production of a declaration similar to that referred to in subarticle

(4) of article 3 of this Ordinance, unless he is satisfied of the real

needs of the applicant.

The Superintendent of Public Health may, upon an

application to this effect, and upon the payment of such fee as may

be fixed by the said Superintendent, grant, together with a site, an

area, not exceeding twenty-six metres in surface, contiguous to the

said site, for the construction of additional graves or for the

erection of a chapel.

Any grave in any part of a cemetery must be entirely

constructed underground, and covered with stones to the level of

the nearest pathway; any side of every such grave, which is not at

least sixty centimetres distant from the nearest point of the ground

granted to the person to whom the said grave belongs, although it

has been excavated in the rock, must be constructed with a wall of

not less than thirty centimetres in thickness; and the grave itself

must be at least one metre and eighty-three centimetres deep

Provided that even such graves may, with the permission of the

Minister responsible for public health, be of a less depth, width, or

length, or be constructed on the surface of the ground.

Any person constructing a grave contiguous to ground

granted or destined to be granted to others, may construct the

dividing wall, to a thickness of fifteen centimetres, on such ground

and in such case, the Superintendent of Public Health, or the person

to whom the said ground shall have been granted, may, for one of

the sides of another grave, avail himself of the wall thus

constructed, on paying to the possessor of the former grave, half

the value of the said wall, to be considered as a wall of thirty

centimetres in thickness.

(1) The possessor of a grave of which one or more walls,

shall have been partly constructed beyond his own ground, or the

person who in the construction of a grave shall have rendered

common a wall of another grave, cannot, without the consent of the

[CAP. 17. 3

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possessor of the latter grave, raise such wall above the level of the

surface of the pathway nearest to the said grave.

(2) The possessor or person aforesaid may, nevertheless, cover

over his own grave with a cover or a monument rising above the

said level, and avail himself of the common wall for the support of

such work, provided he does not thereby hinder, or render difficult

the opening of t he adjoining grave, and saving always the

provisions contained in article 10.

(1) Saving the provisions contained in the foregoing

articles, it shall be lawful for any person having a grave, in the said

cemetery, outside the crypt of the chapel, to enclose such grave

together with any other area granted to him, with walls or

otherwise; to erect on his own ground any monument or other

structure to which access may be had from the common pathway,

without passing over sites granted or destined to be granted to

others; and to make thereon any inscription he pleases; provided

the design of any such work and the draft of the inscription be

approved by the Board referred to in subarticle (3) hereof.

(2) It shall also be lawful for any person having a tomb in the

crypt of the chapel, to make thereon any inscription approved by

the said Board; but he may not construct any work without the

permission of the Minister responsible for public health, besides

the approval of the said Board.

(3) For the purposes of this article, there shall be a board, to be

known as the Burials Board which shall be composed of a chairman

and two members appointed annually by the Minister responsible

for public health.

It shall not be lawful for any person to erect any structure

or monument of more than sixty centimetres in height, if between

such structure or monument and the nearest structure or monument,

there shall not be at least a distance of one metre and twenty

centimetres.

(1) Any person obtaining a site with the addition of

another area the limits of which, in the opinion of the Superin-

tendent of Public Health, cannot be exactly fixed by reference to

the plan mentioned in article 3, shall, within ten days of a notice

which will be given to him by the said Superintendent of Public

Health, make visible and permanent marks of the boundaries of the

site with the said area, to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of

Public Health or of another person appointed by him.

(2) In default of such marks being made by the grantee within

the said time, they shall be made by the Superintendent of Public

Health, who, in such case, shall exact from the grantee a sum not

larger than the expense incurred.

(1) The possessor of a private grave in the said cemetery,

shall be gratuitously allowed, on the occasion of the burial of any

corpse in that grave, if there shall not be therein sufficient space for

such burial, to cause the remains of corpses, previously buried

therein to be, at his expense, removed to the general charnel house

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to be for such purpose constructed at the expense of the

Government.

(2) If the said grave cannot be used on account of a recent

burial, the possessor shall, without payment of any fee, be

permitted to cause the corpse which is to be buried therein, to be

placed in deposit in another grave, in a place within the cemetery to

be for that purpose constructed by the Government, until the said

grave may be used according to law.

(3) In the place of deposit mentioned in subarticle (2) of this

article, no corpse of a member of any congregation shall be

permitted to be placed, so long as there are therein four other

corpses of members of the said congregation.

The prohibition made in virtue of the last preceding article

shall, to all intents and purposes, have the same effect as a

prohibition made in virtue of article 144 of the Code of Police

Laws.

(1) The said prohibition shall not have the effect of

preventing the conveyance of any corpse from the place in which

the deceased has died, to any church or chapel for any religious

service or other purposes, to be thereafter conveyed from such

church or chapel for burial in a place authorised according to law.

(2) Moreover, nothing in this Ordinance contained shall affect

the existing laws respecting funeral emoluments due to any

ecclesiastic or religious body corporate, in connection with the

right of sepulture, which the deceased, before the said prohibition,

may have had in any church or chapel.

(3) Finally, except the right of burying corpses in graves situate

within the limits of any of the said places, any other right over such

graves, which the possessors thereof have according to law, shall

remain unaffected.

Any person who makes a false declaration for the purposes

of article 3 or of article 4 of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an

offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine (multa) of not

less than fifty-eight euros and twenty-three cents (58.23) but not

exceeding two hundred and thirty-two euros and ninety-four cents

(232.94).

[CAP. 17. 5

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FORM

[ ARTICLE 3]

Application for the non-gratuitous grant of a site for a grave, with

or without additional area.

To the Superintendent of Public Health

Date................

The undersigned........(besides the name and surname, the place

of birth, the profession, trade, or other state, and the name of the

father, must be stated) and residing at................................(name of

the city or suburb), No......................................................(address)

requests the grant of the site for a grave, marked No .......................

in the ............................................... (East or West, as the case

may be) Division, Section ..............................................................

(to be indicated by the letter), Compartment ...................................

(to be indicated by the letter), on the plan of the Santa Maria

Addolorata Cemetery existing in the office of the Superintendent of

Public Health.

If, besides a site for a grave, the grant of another contiguous

area is required, the following is to be added-

He further requests the grant of an area of ......................... square

meters, contiguous to the said site.

And the undersigned hereby pays in the said office, the sum of

.............. namely for the site for a grave, and ................. for the

contigous area on the basis of ........................ per square metre.

Signature