Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1975 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 2 · Orders Made by Courts in Singapore
5. Variation and revocation of maintenance order made in Singapore
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This section applies to a maintenance order a certified copy of which has been sent to a reciprocating country pursuant to section 3 and to a maintenance order made by virtue of section 4 which has been confirmed by a competent court in such a country.
maintenance order
“maintenance order” means an order (however described) of the following descriptions:(a)an order (including an affiliation order or order consequent upon an affiliation order) which provides for the payment of a lump sum or the making of periodical payments —(i)by a man towards the maintenance of his wife or former wife; or(ii)by a person towards the maintenance of the person’s child; and(b)an affiliation order or order consequent upon an affiliation order, being an order which provides for the payment by a person adjudged, found or declared to be a child’s father of expenses incidental to the child’s birth or, where the child had died, of the child’s funeral expenses,and in the case of a maintenance order which has been varied, means that order as varied;
A court in Singapore having power to vary a maintenance order to which this section applies has power to vary that order by a provisional order.
court
“court” includes any tribunal or person having power to make, confirm, enforce, vary or revoke a maintenance order that is enforceable by a civil court of competent jurisdiction;
Where the court hearing an application for the variation of a maintenance order to which this section applies proposes to vary it by increasing the rate of the payments under the order, the order varying that order is a provisional order unless either —
provisional order
“provisional order” means (according to the context) —(a)an order made by a court in Singapore which is provisional only and has no effect unless confirmed, with or without alteration, by a competent court in a reciprocating country; or(b)an order made by a court in a reciprocating country which is provisional only and has no effect unless confirmed with or without alteration, by a court in Singapore having power under this Act to confirm it;
both the payer and the payee under the order appear in the proceedings; or
the applicant appears and the appropriate process has been duly served on the other party.
Where a court in Singapore makes a provisional order varying a maintenance order to which this section applies, the prescribed officer of the court must send in the prescribed manner to the court in a reciprocating country having power to confirm the provisional order a certified copy of the provisional order together with a document, authenticated in the prescribed manner, setting out or summarising the evidence given in the proceedings.
reciprocating country
“reciprocating country” has the meaning given by section 17;
Where a certified copy of a provisional order made by a court in a reciprocating country, being an order varying or revoking a maintenance order to which this section applies, together with a document, duly authenticated, setting out or summarising the evidence given in the proceedings in which the provisional order was made, is received by the court in Singapore which made the maintenance order, that court may —
certified copy
“certified copy”, in relation to an order of court, means a copy of the order certified by the proper officer of the court to be a true copy;
confirm or refuse to confirm the provisional order; and
if that order is an order varying the maintenance order, confirm it either without alteration or with such alterations as it thinks reasonable.
For the purpose of determining whether a provisional order should be confirmed under subsection (5), the court is to proceed as if an application for the variation or revocation (as the case may be) of the maintenance order in question had been made to it.
Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been varied by an order (including a provisional order which has been confirmed) made by a court in Singapore or by a competent court in a reciprocating country, the maintenance order has, as from the date on which under the provisions of the order the variation is to take effect, effect as varied by that order and, where that order was a provisional order, as if that order had been made in the form in which it was confirmed and as if it had never been a provisional order.
Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been revoked by an order made by a court in Singapore or by a competent court in a reciprocating country, including a provisional order made by the last mentioned court which has been confirmed by a court in Singapore, the maintenance order is, as from the date on which under the provisions of the order the revocation is to take effect, deemed to have ceased to have effect except as respects any arrears due under the maintenance order at that date.
Where before a maintenance order made by virtue of section 4 is confirmed, a document, duly authenticated, setting out or summarising evidence taken in a reciprocating country for the purpose of proceedings relating to the confirmation of the order is received by the court in Singapore which made the order, or that court, in compliance with a request made to it by a court in such a country, takes the evidence of a person residing in Singapore for the purpose of those proceedings, the court in Singapore which made the order is to consider that evidence and if, having done so, it appears to it that the order ought not to have been made —
it shall, in such manner as may be prescribed, give to the person on whose application the maintenance order was made an opportunity to consider that evidence, to make representations with respect to it and to adduce further evidence; and
after considering all the evidence and any representations made by that person, it may revoke the maintenance order.