Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1975 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Orders Made by Courts Inreciprocating Countries
7. Confirmation by Singapore court of provisional maintenance order made in reciprocating country
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This section applies to a maintenance order made, whether before or after 3 May 1976, by a court in a reciprocating country being a provisional order.
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;
Where a certified copy of an order to which this section applies, together with —
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;
a document, duly authenticated, setting out or summarising the evidence given in the proceedings in which the order was made; and
a statement of the grounds on which the making of the order might have been opposed by the payer under the order,is received by the Minister from the responsible authority in a reciprocating country, and it appears to the Minister that the payer under the order is residing in Singapore, the Minister must send the copy of the order and documents which accompanied it to the prescribed officer of the appropriate court, and that court is to —
if the payer under the order establishes any grounds on which the payer might have opposed the making of the order in the proceedings in which the order was made — refuse to confirm the order; and
in any other case — confirm the order either without alteration or with such alterations as it thinks reasonable.
In any proceedings for the confirmation under this section of a provisional order, the statement received from the court which made the order of the grounds on which the making of the order might have been opposed by the payer under the order is conclusive evidence that the payer might have opposed the making of the order on any of those grounds in the proceedings in which the order was made.
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;
For the purpose of determining whether a provisional order should be confirmed under this section, the court is to proceed as if an application for a maintenance order against the payer under the provisional order had been made to it.
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;
The prescribed officer of a court having power under this section to confirm a provisional order must, if the court confirms the order, register the order in the prescribed manner in that court, and must, if the court refuses to confirm the order, return the certified copy of the order and the documents which accompanied it to the Minister.
If a summons to appear in the proceedings for the confirmation of the provisional order cannot be duly served on the payer under that order, the officer by whom the certified copy of the order was received must return that copy and the documents which accompanied it to the Minister with a statement giving such information as the officer possesses as to the whereabouts of the payer.
payer
“payer”, in relation to a maintenance order, means the person liable to make payments under the order;