Section 3

Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, where any person has been appointed to be a notary public before the coming into force of this subsection and no period is specified in that appointment, the appointment shall cease to have effect upon the expiry of the period of two years from the date of coming into force of this subsection.

Nothing in subsection (1A) shall be construed as preventing the reappointment under subsection (1) of any person whose appointment has ceased to have effect by virtue of subsection (1A), and every such reappointment shall be deemed to be a new appointment.

No person shall be appointed to be a notary public unless he is a practising advocate or a pleader licensed under the Pleaders and Petition Writers Enactment of the State of Terengganu [Tr.59 of 1356] and who was so licensed before 1 January 1956:

Provided that in any place in which a suitable advocate is not available for appointment, the Attorney General may, in his discretion, appoint a public officer to be a notary public, and any fees received by a public officer so appointed in respect of his functions as a notary public shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

The Attorney General shall not make any appointment under this section without consulting the Bar Council or, in relation to Sabah or Sarawak, without consulting the State Attorney General.

In making any appointment under this section the Attorney General shall have regard to the number of notaries public already practising in the place where the applicant proposes to practise and to the convenience of the inhabitants of such place, but, subject as aforesaid, the Attorney General shall have absolute discretion in making or refusing to make any such appointment and there shall be no appeal from his decision.

If it shall appear to the Attorney General or, where the place of practice is in Sabah or Sarawak, to the State Attorney General, that any notary public is about to be absent from his place of practice for a period exceeding one month, the Attorney General or the State Attorney General, may appoint any person, being a practising advocate, to be a notary public temporarily during the absence of that notary public.

No temporary appointment of a notary public shall have effect for a longer period than twelve months and any such appointment shall lapse on the death or on the return to his place of practice of the notary public on account of whose departure the appointment was made.

Every appointment under subsection (1) or (5) and the lapse of every temporary appointment under subsection (6) shall be published in the Gazette.

Privileges of notaries public