Cap. 16 Art. 251Acts and registers to be open to inspection.

(1) The register books, acts and documents referred to in the foregoing articles, shall be open to inspection by every person, and extracts therefrom, signed, manually or electronically signed as defined in Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, by the

Director of the Public Registry of Malta or the Director of the

Public Registry of Gozo, shall be given upon the demand of any person.

(2) In this Title the word "extract" means a certificate containing an abridged copy of one or more registered acts in accordance with Forms I, J, K, KK, L, O and P set out in Part II of the First Schedule to this Code. All corrections and annotations entered in the margin of the registers shall be incorporated in the extract with the exception of annotations of adoptions which shall be transcribed at the back of the extract.

(2A) (a) Extracts of acts of birth and of entries in the Adopted Persons Register shall be issued in the Forms I or J shown in Part II of the First Schedule to this Code.

(b) For the purpose of the extracts issued in terms of paragraph (a) hereof entries in the Adopted Persons Register shall be given consecutive numbers which follow the last number of the acts of birth registered in the year of birth of the adopted person, or one of such numbers reserved for the purpose by the Director and relative to the year of birth of the adopted person, which numbers shall not be allotted to acts of birth. The said year shall also be indicated.

(c) The fact that certain numbers have, according to paragraph (b) of this sub-article, been reserved for registration of adopted persons, shall be kept secret and confidential. A list of such numbers shall only be given to the department of Government dealing with nationality, the Passport Office, the Electoral Commission and the Marriage Registrar who shall be bound by the same secrecy and confidentiality.

(3) The Directors mentioned in sub-article (1) shall also, if required, give a certificate containing a true copy in full of one or more registered acts, as well as a certificate attesting the non-existence of any registration if upon a search for any such registration or act, such registration or act is not found: Provided that the words "illegitimate father" wherever they occur in an act of civil status registered before the 1st March, 2005 shall not be reproduced in any copy or extract of such act issued by the Directors mentioned in sub-article (1), except as may be otherwise explicitly ordered or authorised by a Court: Provided further that in an extract of any act of birth -

(a) the term ''single'', as relating to the status of the mother, shall not be stated;

(b) when a child is born more than three hundred days from the legal separation, divorce or annulment of the marriage of the mother no reference shall be made to such legal separation, divorce or annulment of marriage;

(c) where the child is born in wedlock, an indication of the marriage contracted between the spouses shall be stated in the act of birth next to the name and surname of the parents by using the words "spouse of the said";

(d) when a child is born less than three hundred days from the legal separation, divorce or annulment of the marriage of the mother any reference to that fact shall not be entered. (4)* The Director of the Public Registry shall give to any person applying for the same, a certificate, the contents of which shall be prescribed, reflecting all the acts of civil status entered in the Public Registry against any individual registered therein.