34Defective consents

34 Defective consents (1) The Court may refuse to make an adoption order where consent to the adoption was given, or is purported to have been given, by a person (not being the child) for the purposes of this Division 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, duress or other improper means; (c) the instrument of consent has been altered in a material particular without authority; or (d) the person who gave or purportedly gave the consent was not, at the date of the instrument of consent, in a fit condition to give the consent or did not understand the nature of the consent. (2) The Court shall not make an order for the adoption of a child where the instrument of consent was signed by the birth mother of the child: (a) before the birth of the child; or Part 3 Adoptions under this Act Division 5 Guardianship of child awaiting adoption Adoption of Children Act 1994 18 (b) within one month after the birth of the child unless it is proved that, at the time the instrument was signed, the birth mother was in a fit condition to give the consent. (3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(b): (a) certificates from 2 medical practitioners each certifying that, at the time when the instrument of consent was signed by the birth mother of the child, the mother was in a fit condition to give the consent; and (b) a signed report from a person who is an approved person for the purposes of section 30 that the birth mother received counselling and the prescribed information pursuant to that section, is evidence that that mother was in a fit condition to give the consent.