61. Powers exercisable by Official Assignee subject to orders of court
Feedback & supportThe Official Assignee, subject to any general or special orders of the court, may —
carry on the business of the bankrupt so far as is necessary for the beneficial winding up of the same;
bring, institute or defend any action or other legal proceeding relating to the property of the bankrupt;
property
“property” includes money, goods, things in action, land and every description of property, whether real or personal and whether situate in Singapore or elsewhere; also obligations, easements and every description of estate, interest and profit, present or future, vested or contingent, arising out of or incident to property as above defined;
employ, with the permission in writing of the Minister, a solicitor to take any proceedings or do any business;
accept, as the consideration for the sale of any property of the bankrupt, a sum of money payable at a future time, subject to such stipulations as to security and otherwise as he thinks fit;
mortgage or pledge any part of the property of the bankrupt for the purpose of raising money for the payment of his debts;
refer any dispute to arbitration, compromise all debts, claims and liabilities, whether present or future, certain or contingent, liquidated or unliquidated, subsisting or supposed to subsist, between the bankrupt and any person who may have incurred any liability to the bankrupt, on the receipt of such sums payable at such times, and generally on such terms as are agreed on;
liability
“liability” includes any compensation for work or labour done, any obligation or possibility of an obligation to pay money or money’s worth on the breach of any express or implied covenant, contract, agreement or undertaking, whether the breach does or does not occur or is or is not likely to occur or capable of occurring before the discharge of the debtor, and generally it includes any express or implied engagement, agreement or undertaking to pay, or capable of resulting in the payment of money or money’s worth, whether the payment is as respects amount fixed or unliquidated or as respects time, present or future, certain or dependent on any one contingency or on two or more contingencies, or as to mode of valuation capable of being ascertained by fixed rules or as matter of opinion;
make such compromise or other arrangement as is thought expedient with creditors or persons claiming to be creditors in respect of any debts provable under the bankruptcy;
make such compromise, or other arrangement, as is thought expedient, with respect to any claim arising out of or incidental to the property of the bankrupt, made or capable of being made on the Official Assignee by any person or by the Official Assignee on any person;
divide in its existing form, amongst the creditors according to its estimated value, any property which from its peculiar nature or other special circumstances cannot be readily or advantageously sold.