This Act may be cited as the Engineers Registration Amendment Act, 1944, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Engineers Registration Act, 1924 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

This Act shall come into force on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-five.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, “year” means a year ending on the thirty-first day of March.

Every person (whether or not he is registered as an engineer under the principal Act) commits an offence who, not being the holder of an annual practising certificate issued under this section, uses or causes to be used in connection with his business, trade, calling, or profession any written words, titles, initials, or abbreviation of words, titles, or initials, which are intended to cause or may reasonably cause any other person to believe that he is registered under the principal Act.

Subject to the payment of the prescribed fee, the Registrar, on application in that behalf by any person who is registered as an engineer under the principal Act, shall issue to him an annual practising certificate, and any such certificate shall be in force during the year in respect of which it is issued:

Provided that if at any time during the currency of any such certificate the holder thereof ceases to be registered under the principal Act the certificate shall be deemed to be cancelled.

Every person who commits an offence against this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds and (if the offence is a continuing one) to a further fine not exceeding five pounds for every day during which the offence continues.

Section fourteen of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

The Board shall in the month of April in each year furnish to the Minister of Works a list of the registered engineers who for the time being are the holders of annual practising certificates, showing the particulars entered on the register in respect of each such engineer, and the Minister shall cause every such list to be published in the Gazette.

The Gazette containing any such list shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary (whether by a certificate under the hand of the Registrar or otherwise), be sufficient evidence in all judicial proceedings that, on the date of the list, every person whose name appears in the list was the holder of an annual practising certificate and was duly registered as an engineer by virtue of the qualifications set forth in the list, and that no person whose name does not appear in the list was the holder of an annual practising certificate or was registered as an engineer.

A certificate under the hand of the Registrar to the effect that at any time or during any period specified in the certificate any person was or was not registered as an engineer under the principal Act, or was or was not the holder of an annual practising certificate under this Act, or as to any entry in the Register of Engineers, or as to any act or proceeding of the Board shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence of the matters therein specified.

Section sixteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting in paragraph (b), after the words “certificates of registration”, the words “and of any other certificates issued by the Registrar”.

In addition to the persons qualified under section six of the principal Act, every person shall, on payment of the prescribed fee, be entitled to be registered under the principal Act as an engineer who—

1941, No. 25

In this section, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Subject to any exemption granted under the next succeeding section, no local authority shall employ as its engineer or, where it employs more than one engineer, as its chief or principal engineer, or engage as its consulting engineer, any person who is not the holder of an annual practising certificate issued under section three of this Act:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply with respect to any local authority in any year unless the total amount expended in that year by the local authority on the construction and maintenance of its works is at least ten thousand pounds:

Provided also that it shall not be a breach of the provisions of this subsection for a local authority to continue to employ as its engineer or as its chief or principal engineer any person who is not the holder of an annual practising certificate if on the passing of this Act he was employed by that local authority in the same capacity.

Every person who is employed by a local authority in breach of the provisions of the last preceding subsection commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds for each day during which he is so employed.

Subject to any exemption granted under the next succeeding section, it shall not be lawful for any local authority to expend any moneys borrowed (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) by way of special loan under the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1926, for the purposes of any engineering work, except under the supervision of an engineer who is the holder of an annual practising certificate issued under section three of this Act.

The Minister of Works, acting on the recommendation of the Engineers Registration Board, may from time to time, by writing under his hand, exempt any local authority from all or any of the provisions of the last preceding section.

Any such exemption may be granted in respect of any period, whether before or after the date of the exemption, and may be granted either unconditionally or upon or subject to such conditions as the Minister, acting on the recommendation of the Board, thinks fit.

Any exemption granted under this section may be at any time in like manner amendedor revoked.