Registration of Documents Act

Defines "registrar" as the registrar of documents or any assistant registrar of documents appointed under section 2.

The registrar may refuse to register any document that contains seditious, libellous, scandalous or indecent matter.

Non-English documents presented for registration must be accompanied by a certified English translation and a true copy of the original.

The registrar may refuse to accept for registration documents showing interlineations, blanks, erasures or alterations unless the signers initial or sign those changes; if the registrar registers such a document, they must note the interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration in the register at the time of registration.

If someone alleges an error, omission or fraud in the register and the registrar is satisfied the allegation is proved, the registrar must correct the error, omission or entry.

Registration does not fix defects in a registered document or make it valid if it would not otherwise be, except as this Act provides.

Any applicant may search and examine the register during usual office hours and may obtain certified copies of registered documents if required; documents filed in the register may not be taken from the register.

If an original registered document is lost or destroyed, a copy certified by the registrar is admissible in evidence in all courts in Uganda, subject to lawful exceptions.

Certified copies signed by the registrar are admissible in civil cases without proof, unless forgery or incorrectness is alleged; a party intending to use such a certified copy must deliver a copy to the opposite party in time for inspection.

The registrar is not liable to suits, claims or demands for acts or omissions done in good faith in the registrar's official capacity.

Fees set out in the Schedule to this Act are payable for the matters they relate to, and the fees or the Schedule may be changed or a new Schedule substituted by rules made under section 20.

The Minister may appoint a registrar of documents and assistant registrars of documents as necessary for the purposes of the Act.

The Minister may make rules to carry out the Act; those rules may set a penalty not exceeding two hundred shillings for breaches.

Registers kept under the earlier Ordinance must be delivered into the custody of the registrar and preserved by the registrar; the registrar may furnish certified copies of documents from those registers in the same manner as under this Act.

The registrar must keep a register of documents and must register all documents presented in the prescribed form upon payment of the prescribed fee, subject to stated exceptions.

Documents for registration must be presented by the person executing or claiming an interest in the document, or by that person's agent; the registrar may verify identity, interest, or an agent's authority.

Registration is effected by filing a certified true copy of the document; the registrar must certify the copy as a true copy.

The registrar must consecutively number each filed copy, record the registration date and the presenter's name on it, and file copies in the order received.

A memorandum signed by the registrar must be endorsed on every registered document and serves as prima facie evidence of due registration.

The registrar must keep a book and, when a document is registered, enter its registration number, the parties' names, the document's date and nature, and the date of registration.

The registrar may refuse to register a document that does not comply with prescribed rules on paper or copy form, or, if no rules exist, any document whose copy the registrar considers unsuitable for filing.