This Act may be cited as the Social Hygiene Act, 1917.

In this Act, except where a contrary intention appears,—

Every person suffering from any venereal disease, or who has reason to believe that he is suffering from any such disease, shall forthwith consult a registered medical practitioner with respect thereto, and shall place himself under treatment by that medical practitioner, or by some other registered medical practitioner, or shall attend for treatment at any hospital or other place available for the treatment of venereal diseases.

Every person undergoing treatment for any venereal disease as aforesaid shall, unless and until he has been cured of such disease or is free from such disease in a communicable form, continue to submit himself to such treatment at such intervals as may be prescribed, not exceeding in any case an interval of four weeks.

Every medical practitioner who attends or advises any patient for or in respect of any venereal disease from which the patient is suffering shall, by written notice in the prescribed form delivered to the patient,—

Any parent, guardian, or other person in charge of a child suffering from any venereal disease shall cause such child to be treated for such disease by a registered medical practitioner.

Every parent, guardian, or other person in charge of any such child as aforesaid who fails or neglects to have that child treated as aforesaid by a registered medical practitioner shall be liable to a fine not exceeding such amount as may be prescribed in that behalf by regulations under this Act.

For the purposes of this section the term “child” means a person under the age of sixteen years.

Every person who, while suffering from any venereal disease in a communicable form, is employed or engaged in or about any factory, shop, hotel, restaurant, house, or other place in any capacity requiring him to handle food intended for consumption by any other person or persons shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

Every person shall be guilty of an offence punishable by a fine of not less than twenty pounds and not more than one hundred pounds who at any time after the passing of this Act employs or continues to employ any person suffering from any venereal disease in a communicable form, if by reason of such employment such person is required or is permitted to handle any food intended for consumption by any person other than the person employed, unless the defendant proves that he did not know or suspect, and had no reasonable means of knowing or suspecting, that the person so employed by him was suffering from such disease.

Every person, other than a registered medical practitioner, who undertakes for payment or other reward the treatment or cure of any venereal disease commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.

Every person who knowingly infects any other person with a venereal disease, or knowingly does or permits or suffers any act likely to lead to the infection of any other person with any such disease, commits an offence, and is liable, on summary conviction before a Stipendiary Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

The Governor-General may, by Order in Council gazetted, prohibit the sale or supply of any drug or drugs that may be specified in that Order in Council, except pursuant to the written prescription of a registered medical practitioner:

Provided that nothing in any such Order in Council shall interfere with the sale or supply of drugs by any wholesale dealer in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing.

Every person who sells or supplies any drug or drugs contrary to the terms of any such Order in Council commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.

For the purposes of this section every person shall be deemed to sell or supply any drug who sells or supplies the same either on his own account or as the servant or agent of any other person, and in the case of the sale or supply of any such drug by a servant or agent his principal or employer shall be under the same liability as if he had effected the sale or supply personally.

Without limiting the operation of the foregoing provisions of this Act, or of section two hundred and thirty-one of the Crimes Act, 1908, every person who, without legal justification or excuse, falsely alleges, whether by words or otherwise, that any other person is suffering or has suffered from venereal disease (whether the form of such disease is specified or not) shall be guilty of the offence of publishing a defamatory libel, and the provisions of the Crimes Act, 1908, as to the offence of publishing a defamatory libel shall apply accordingly.

Every person who wilfully commits a breach of any regulation made under this Act in respect of the breach of which any penalty by way of fine or imprisonment is prescribed by regulations shall be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction by the penalty so prescribed.

The Minister of Public Health may from time to time appoint as Health Patrols such number of persons, of either sex, as he may consider necessary, whose duty it shall be, subject to regulations in that behalf to be made under this Act, to protect the health and morality of young persons.

Every person appointed as a Health Patrol under this section shall have and may exercise the powers of police constables, and shall be entitled to the same protection and privileges in the performance of their duties as police constables:

Provided that no person so appointed shall be entitled in the execution of his duties to address any person of the opposite sex.

It shall be the duty of every Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, if required so to do by the Minister of Public Health, to make effective provision, in accordance with regulations under this Act, for the reception, accommodation, examination, and treatment of persons suffering from venereal disease.

Every Hospital and Charitable Aid Board required by the Minister to make provision as aforesaid for persons suffering from venereal disease shall keep a separate account of all moneys expended by it for that purpose, and shall be entitled to receive by way of subsidy an amount equal to seventy-five per centum of the moneys so expended in any financial year.

All moneys payable by way of subsidy under this section shall be paid in the same manner in all respects as if they were moneys payable by way of subsidy under section thirty-eight of the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, 1909, and the provisions of that section shall, so far as applicable, apply accordingly.

In respect of the administration of this Act, the Minister of Public Health shall have and may exercise, in addition to any other powers conferred on him by this Act, the powers following, that is to say:—

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council gazetted, make regulations—

All regulations under this section shall be laid before Parliament within thirty days after the date of the gazetting thereof, if Parliament is then in session, and, if not, then within thirty days after the commencement of the next ensuing session.