adopter in lawful wedlock, and in respect of those matters that person shall stand to
the adopter exclusively in the position of a child born to the adopter in lawful
wedlock.
(5) In any case where two spouses are the adopters, the spouses shall, in respect of the
matters mentioned in subsection (4) and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any
court to make any order as to the custody and maintenance of and right of access to
children, stand to each other and to the adopted person in the same relation as they
would have stood if they had been the lawful father and mother of that person, and
the adopted person shall stand to them in the same relation as to a lawful father and
mother.
65
Power to make interim order
(1) Upon any application for an adoption order the court may postpone the
determination of the application and may make a provisional order, which shall not be
an adoption order for the purposes of this Act, giving the custody of the minor to the
applicant for a period not exceeding two years by way of a probationary period upon
such terms as regards provision for the maintenance, education, supervision of the
welfare of the minor and otherwise as the court may think fit.
(2) All such consents as are required to an adoption order shall be necessary to a
provisional order, but subject to a like power on the part of the court to dispense with
any such consent.
(3) The court may, within the period laid down in subsection (1), either confirm or
cancel its provisional order according to whether it considers such order is or is not in
the best interests of the minor.
66
Power to make subsequent order in respect of minor already subject to an
order
An adoption order or a provisional order may be made in respect of a minor who has
already been the subject of an adoption order and, upon any application for such
order, the adopter or adopters under the adoption order last previously made shall, if
living, be deemed to be the parent or parents of the minor for all the purposes of this
Act.
67
Rescission of adoption order
(1) A parent of a minor for whose adoption an order has been made in terms of this
Part, or the person who was at the time of the making of the adoption order the legal
guardian of the minor, or the adopter of such a minor, or the Minister may apply to
the court by which the adoption order was made for the rescission thereof on one or
more of the following grounds—
(a)
where the applicant is the parent of the minor, that he did not consent
to the adoption and that the adoption order should not have been made without his
consent;
(b)
where the applicant is an adopter, that his adoption of the minor was
induced by fraud, misrepresentation or justus error, or that the minor was suffering
from a serious physical defect or that the minor is a mentally disordered or defective
person in terms of the Mental Health Act [Chapter 15:06] and that the physical defect
or mental disorder or defect existed at the time of the making of the adoption order;
(c)
that for reasons set out in the application the adoption is to the
detriment of the minor:
Provided that—
(i)
no application made on the ground specified in paragraph (a) may be
made more than six months after the date upon which the applicant became aware of
the fact that an order for the adoption of his minor child had been made, or more than
five years after the date upon which that order was made;
(ii)
no application made on a ground specified in paragraph (b) may be
made more than six months after the date upon which the applicant became aware of
that ground;
(iii)
no application made in terms of paragraph (c) may be made more than
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