Illiterates Protection Act (Chapter 78)

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This is the latest version of this legislation commenced on 31 Dec 2000.

Uganda

Illiterates Protection Act

Chapter 78

  • Commenced on 30 September 1918

  • [This is the version of this document at 31 December 2000.]
  • [Note: The version of the Act as at 31 December 2000 was revised and consolidated by the Law Reform Commission of Uganda. All subsequent amendments have been researched and applied by Laws.Africa for ULII.]


An Act for the protection of illiterate persons.


1. Interpretation

In this Act—

(a)“document” means any print or writing capable of being used as evidence of any fact or thing as against the person by, for or at the request, or on behalf or in the name of whom the same purports to be written or signed in any way;
(b)“illiterate” means, in relation to any document, a person who is unable to read and understand the script or language in which the document is written or printed.

2. Verification of signature of illiterates

No person shall write the name of an illiterate by way of signature to any document unless such illiterate shall have first appended his or her mark to it; and any person who so writes the name of the illiterate shall also write on the document his or her own true and full name and address as witness, and his or her so doing shall imply a statement that he or she wrote the name of the illiterate by way of signature after the illiterate had appended his or her mark, and that he or she was instructed so to write by the illiterate and that prior to the illiterate appending his or her mark, the document was read over and explained to the illiterate.

3. Verification of documents written for illiterates

Any person who shall write any document for or at the request, on behalf or in the name of any illiterate shall also write on the document his or her own true and full name as the writer of the document and his or her true and full address, and his or her so doing shall imply a statement that he or she was instructed to write the document by the person for whom it purports to have been written and that it fully and correctly represents his or her instructions and was read over and explained to him or her.

4. Offence and penalty

If the writer of or witness to the signature on any document fails to write on it his or her true and full name and address as provided in section 2 or 3, or if he or she has done so and the statement which under this Act is implied by the writing is untrue in any particular, then and in every such case the person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred shillings, or in default of payment to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months, but without prejudice to any criminal or civil liability which he or she may have incurred in the circumstances by reason of fraud, forgery, misrepresentation or otherwise.

5. Saving as to certain documents

Nothing in this Act shall apply to documents of the classes specified in the Schedule to this Act. The Schedule may be varied from time to time by the Minister by statutory instrument.


Schedule (Section 5)

Exempted documents


1.Receipts for taxes.
2.Receipts for money paid by a Government officer on behalf of the Treasury.