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Part II

the 1958 c. 39.Maintenance Orders Act 1958 or for the variation of the rate of payments specified by such an order,

may if it thinks fit order that those proceedings and any other proceedings being heard therewith shall, notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) above, be treated as domestic proceedings for the purposes of this Act.

(3) Where the same parties are parties—

(a) to proceedings which are domestic proceedings by virtue of subsection (1) above, and

(b) to proceedings which the court has power to treat as domestic proceedings by virtue of subsection (2) above,

and the proceedings are heard together by a magistrates’ court, the whole of those proceedings shall be treated as domestic proceedings for the purposes of this Act.

(4) No appeal shall lie from the making of, or refusal to make, an order under subsection (2) above.

(5) Until the 1976 c. 36.Adoption Act 1976 comes into force subsection (1) above shall have effect as if for paragraph (h) thereof there were substituted the following paragraph—

“(h) the 1958 c. 5 (7 & 8 Eliz. 2).
1960 c. 59.
1975 c. 12.Adoption Act 1958, the Adoption Act 1960 or Part I of the Children Act 1975, except proceedings under section 42 or 43 of the Adoption Act 1958.”

(6) Until the 1980 c. 5.Child Care Act 1980 comes into force subsection (1) above shall have effect as if for paragraph (k) thereof there were substituted the following paragraph—

“(k) section 87 or section 88 of the 1933 c. 12.
1948 c. 43.Children and Young Persons Act 1933 or section 26 of the Children Act 1948.”

Composition of magistrates’ courts for domestic proceedings: general. 66.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a magistrates’ court when hearing domestic procedings shall be composed of not more than 3 justices of the peace, including, so far as practicable, both a man and a woman.

(2) Subsection (1) above shall not apply to a magistrates’ court for an inner London petty sessions area, and, notwithstanding anything in section 67 below, for the purpose of exercising jurisdiction to hear domestic proceedings such a court shall be composed of—

(a) a metropolitan stipendiary magistrate as chairman and one or 2 lay justices who are members of the domestic court panel for that area ; or

(b) 2 or 3 lay justices who are members of that panel; or, if it is not practicable for such a court to be so composed,

the court shall for that purpose be composed of a metropolitan stipendiary magistrate sitting alone.