Section 19: Transitional provisions and repeals

(1) Subject to section 14 of this Act and to subsection (2) of this section, a person shall be entitled to be registered as a veterinary surgeon if he has at any time been registered in the register maintained under section 8 of the repealed Veterinary Surgeons Act; and the Registrar shall accordingly, without any application in that behalf make the necessary entries in the appropriate list in the register maintained under this Act.
(2) A person whose name is not on the register maintained under the repealed Veterinary Surgeons Act by reason of its having been erased or removed in consequence of an inquiry into his conduct held under section 20 of that Act by the Council established under the Act, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have had his name removed from the register maintained under this Act, in pursuance of a direction of the Tribunal which took effect on the date when this subsection comes into force; and the provisions of section 14 (7) of this Act shall have effect accordingly as if the direction aforesaid prohibited applications under that subsection for the period of six months.
(3) Where-
(a) there is in any State in Nigeria an institution which was established before 1 January, 1968 and which grants a qualification to persons who have completed a course of veterinary surgery or veterinary medicine conducted at the institution: and
(b) the institution, course and qualification are recognised by the Council for the purposes of this subsection, any such qualification granted before that day to such a person as aforesaid, or after that day to a person who on that day was engaged in such a course at the institution with a view to obtaining such a qualification, shall be deemed to be a qualification approved by the Council under section 9 of this Act; and subject to the provisions of section 14 and of rules made under section 5 of this Act, a person shall be entitled to be registered by reference to a qualification which is an approved qualification by virtue of this subsection.
(4) For the purpose of enabling persons to qualify for membership of the Council at any time during the period of two years beginning with the date when section 2 of this Act comes into force, a person entitled by virtue of subsection (1) of this section to be registered shall be deemed to be so registered notwithstanding that the register has not been established or that his name is not registered in it.
(5) Any proceedings under Part V of the repealed Veterinary Surgeons Act (which relates to discipline) which, immediately before the date when the provisions of that Act relating to such proceedings are repealed, were pending before the Council established by that Act or in the Court of Appeal may be continued, and any right of appeal under that Act which was exercisable immediately before that date may be exercised, as if this Act had not been passed; and for the purposes of the foregoing provisions of this section and or enabling effect to be given to any order made or judgment given in connection with any such proceedings or appeal, but not for any other purposes, the register maintained under that Act shall be deemed not to be abolished.
(6) The Veterinary Surgeons Act is hereby repealed; and, subject to the provisions of subsection (5) of this section, the register maintained under that Act is hereby abolished.