Section 12

Every certified copy of any entry in a register of adoptions, if such copy purports to be signed by any person entrusted under this

Act with the custody of any register of adoptions, shall be received for all purposes and in all courts as evidence of the adoption to which it relates, and, where the entry contains a record of the date of the birth of that adopted child, shall be received not only as evidence of the adoption but also as evidence of the date of the birth of the adopted child, without further proof of such register or of any entry therein or of such signature, but not of the validity of such adoption:

but a court may, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, presume any adoption so registered to have been valid and the onus of proving that there was no such valid adoption shall be on the person alleging the same.

Amendment of register