42Defective consents

42 Defective consents (1) The Court shall not make an adoption order in reliance on a consent given or purporting to have been given by a person if it appears to the Court that— (a) the consent was not given in accordance with this Act; (b) the consent was obtained by fraud or duress; (c) the consent was revoked at a time when it had not become irrevocable; (d) the instrument of consent has been altered in a material particular without authority; (e) the person giving or purporting to give the consent was not, when the instrument of consent was signed, in a fit condition to give the consent or did not understand the nature of the consent; or (f) the instrument of consent was signed before the birth of the child. (2) The Court shall not make an adoption order in reliance on an instrument of consent signed by a parent of the child within the prescribed period after the birth of the child. (3) In subsection (2), ***prescribed period*** means fourteen days or, where the Court has ordered that it is in the best interests of the child that a shorter period be applied, that shorter period. (4) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2), any consent to the adoption of the child validly given before the commencement of this section pursuant to the **Adoption of Children Act 1964** shall be valid and effectual for the purposes of this Act. No. 7147 s. 29.