LEPERS ORDINANCE *

LEP ER S

CHAPTER 45

LEPERS ORDINANCE *

To make provisions with respect to the Disease commonly known as

Leprosy.

(19th September, 1919) †

Enacted by ORDINANCE XX of 1919, as amended by: Act XV of 1929;

Ordinances: XXV of 1939 and XVI of 1942; Acts: XXXIX of 1948 and XI of

1953; Legal Notice 46 of 1965; Act LVIII of 1974; Legal Notice 148 of

1975; Acts VIII of 1990 and V of 2007; and Legal Notice 346 of 2008.

The short title of this Ordinance is the Lepers Ordinance.

(1) No leper coming from any place outside Malta shall

land at any of the ports of Malta.

(2) The provision of subarticle (1) shall not apply to persons

born in Malta.

(3) The master or other person in charge of any vessel who

suffers or permits or fails to prevent the landing from such vessel at

any such port of any person whom he knows or has reasonable

grounds to believe to be a leper shall, on conviction, be liable to the

punishments established for contraventions.

(4) Every leper so landing as aforesaid may by warrant of the

President of Malta be committed to a hospital designated therein

and there detained for such time as may be fixed in the warrant.

(5) Every leper so landing as aforesaid may be brought before a

magistrate of the Courts of Magistrates, who may examine such

leper and any other witness on oath, concerning the place from

which such leper came to Malta, and may cause such leper to be

removed to such place in such manner as the President of Malta

may direct.

(6) The reasonable cost of such inquiry and removal shall be

borne and paid by the master or other person in charge of the vessel

by which such leper was brought to Malta, or by whose act or

default such leper was permitted to land.

(7) Such cost shall be recoverable as a civil debt due to the

Government by proceedings before the Civil Court, First Hall.

(8) For the purposes of the preceding provisions of this article

the decision whether a person is a leper shall rest with the

Administrative Review Tribunal established in terms of article 5 of

the Administrative Justice Act and the provision of this Act shall

apply to such an appeal.

*This Ordinance has been repealed by Act XXVI of 2024.

†See Proclamation No. XVII of 1919.

LEPERS

(9) The said board shall respect and apply the principles of

good administrative behaviour laid down in article 3 of the

Administrative Justice Act.