CONSTITUTION ACT 1934 - SECT 41

CONSTITUTION ACT 1934 - SECT 41

41—Settlement of deadlocks

        (1)         Whenever—

            (a)         any Bill has been passed by the House of Assembly during any session of Parliament; and

            (b)         the same Bill or a similar Bill with substantially the same objects and having the same title has been passed by the House of Assembly during the next ensuing Parliament; and

            (c)         a general election of the House of Assembly has taken place between the two Parliaments; and

            (d)         the second and third readings of the Bill were passed in the second instance by an absolute majority of the whole number of members of the House of Assembly; and

            (e)         both such Bills have been rejected by the Legislative Council or failed to become law in consequence of any amendments made therein by the Legislative Council,

it shall be lawful for but not obligatory upon the Governor within six months after the last rejection or failure—

            (f)         to dissolve the Legislative Council and House of Assembly by proclamation to be published in the Gazette; or

            (g)         to issue writs for the election of two additional members for each Council district.

        (2)         If the Legislative Council and House of Assembly are so dissolved—

            (a)         all the members of both Houses of Parliament shall thereupon vacate their seats and members shall be elected to supply the vacancies so created; and

            (b)         the order of retirement as between members of the Legislative Council elected after such dissolution shall be as provided in section 15 of this Act and one-half of such members shall retire after three years' service calculated from the first day of March of the year of their election or after such further period as is provided for in section 14.

        (3)         If writs for the election of additional members of the Council are issued, after the issue of such writs no vacancy whether arising before or after the issue thereof shall be filled except as may be necessary to bring the representation of the district in which the vacancy occurs to its proper number as set forth in Schedule 2 of this Act. Whenever there are more seats vacated by members returned for the same district than there are seats to be filled and such members' seats were of unequal tenure the seats of those members the unexpired portions of whose terms are the shorter shall be first filled.