Singapore legislation
Section 8
Section 8
Enforcement of maintenance order registered in Singapore court
(1)
A registered order may be enforced in Singapore as if it had been made by the registering court and as if that court had had jurisdiction to make it; and proceedings for or with respect to the enforcement of any such order may be taken accordingly.
(2)
A registered order which has been registered or confirmed by a Family Court (or any other court in Singapore) is enforceable as if the order had been made under Part 8 of the Women’s Charter 1961.
(3)
To avoid doubt, section 121 of the Women’s Charter 1961 applies to a registered order which has been registered or confirmed by a Family Court (or any other court in Singapore) with the following modifications:
the reference in section 121(3) of the Women’s Charter 1961 to a suit is to be read as a reference to an application to enforce the registered order in accordance with section 71 of that Act;
the reference in section 121(3) of the Women’s Charter 1961 to the institution of the suit is to be read as a reference to the filing of the application to enforce the registered order.
(4)
Any person for the time being under an obligation to make payments pursuant to a registered order must give notice of any change of address to the clerk of the registering court, and any person failing without reasonable excuse to give such a notice shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500.
(5)
The Family Court by which an order is enforceable by virtue of this section, and the officers of that Family Court, are to take all such steps for enforcing the order as may be prescribed.
(6)
In any proceedings for or with respect to the enforcement of an order which is for the time being registered in any court under this Act, a certificate of arrears sent to the prescribed officer of the court is evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.
(7)
Subject to subsection (8), sums of money payable under a registered order are payable in accordance with the order as from the date on which the order was made.
(8)
The court having power under section 7 to confirm a provisional order may, if it decides to confirm the order, direct that the sums of money payable under the order are deemed to have been payable in accordance with the order as from such date (being a date later than the date on which the order was made) as it may specify; and subject to any such direction, a maintenance order registered under that section is to be treated as if it had been made in the form in which it was confirmed and as if it had never been a provisional order.