Section 3

The Senate may, from time to time, appoint fit and proper persons to be notaries public for a period not exceeding 12 months.

No person shall be appointed as a notary public unless he is a practising advocate and solicitor in Singapore and has so practised for not less than 7 years.

The Senate shall not make any appointment under this section without consulting the Council of the Law Society of Singapore constituted under the Legal Profession Act 1966.

In making any appointment under this section, the Senate 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 that place, but, subject to this, the Senate shall have absolute discretion in making or refusing to make any such appointment and there shall be no appeal from its decision.

If it appears to the Senate that any notary public is about to be absent from Singapore for a period exceeding one month, the Senate may appoint any person, being a practising advocate and solicitor in Singapore, to be a notary public temporarily during the absence of that notary public from Singapore.

No temporary appointment of a notary public shall have effect for a period longer than 12 months and any such appointment shall lapse on the death or on the return to Singapore of the notary public on account of whose departure from Singapore the appointment was made.

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