Commentary on Sections Part 4 – Civil Partnership: Northern Ireland.Introduction Chapter 2 – Dissolution, Nullity and Other Proceedings Section 173: Grounds on which civil partnership is void
324.This section sets out the grounds on which a civil partnership will be void (and therefore invalid) under the law of Northern Ireland, where the parties registered as civil partners of each other in Northern Ireland. (The grounds on which the law of Northern Ireland will hold other civil partnerships to be void are set out in section 177.)
325.Paragraph (a) provides that the civil partnership will be void if, at the time when the two people registered as civil partners in Northern Ireland, they were not eligible to register as civil partners of each other under the requirements set out in section 138.
326.Paragraph (b) lists the breaches of formal requirements which will render the civil partnership void if both civil partners were aware of them at the time of the registration. These are failure to give the required notice of proposed civil partnership, the civil partnership schedule not being duly issued, the place of registration not being the place specified in the civil partnership schedule, or a registrar not being present at the registration.