PART 4 12.—(1) An applicant has the same right of appeal (if any) against a refusal by a court in Singapore to make a provisional order under any provision of this Act as the applicant would have had against a refusal to make the order had a summons been duly served on the person against whom the order is sought to be made.| (2) Where pursuant to any such provision any such court confirms or refuses to confirm a provisional order made by a court in a reciprocating country, whether a maintenance order or an order varying or revoking a maintenance order, the payer or payee under the maintenance order has the like right of appeal (if any) from the confirmation of, or refusal to confirm, the provisional order as the payer or payee would have if that order were not a provisional order and the court which confirmed or refused to confirm it had (as the case may be) made or refused to make it. |
| (3) Where pursuant to any such provision any such court makes, or refuses to make, an order varying or revoking a maintenance order made by a court in a reciprocating country, then, subject to subsection (1), the payer or payee under the maintenance order has the like right of appeal (if any) from that order or from the refusal to make it as the payer or payee would have had if the maintenance order had been made by the firstmentioned court. |
| (4) Nothing in this section (except subsection (1)) is to be construed as affecting any right of appeal conferred by any other written law. |
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| Admissibility of evidence given in reciprocating country |
13.—(1) A statement contained in —| (a) | a document, duly authenticated, which purports to set out or summarise evidence given in proceedings in a court in a reciprocating country; | | (b) | a document, duly authenticated, which purports to set out or summarise evidence taken in such a country for the purpose of proceedings in a court in Singapore under this Act, whether in response to a request made by such a court or otherwise; or | | (c) | a document, duly authenticated, which purports to have been received in evidence in proceedings in a court in such a country or to be a copy of a document so received, |
| is, in any proceedings in a court in Singapore relating to a maintenance order to which this Act applies, admissible as evidence of any fact stated therein to the same extent as oral evidence of that fact is admissible in those proceedings. |
| (2) A document purporting to set out or summarise evidence given as mentioned in subsection (1)(a), or taken as mentioned in subsection (1)(b), is deemed to be duly authenticated for the purposes of that subsection if the document purports to be certified by the judge, magistrate or other person before whom the evidence was given or by whom it was taken (as the case may be), to be the original document containing or recording, or summarising (as the case may be), that evidence or a true copy of that document. |
| (3) A document purporting to have been received in evidence as mentioned in subsection (1)(c), or to be a copy of a document so received, is deemed to be duly authenticated for the purposes of that subsection if the document purports to be certified by a judge, magistrate or an officer of the court in question to have been, or to be a true copy of a document which has been, so received. |
| (4) It is not necessary in any such proceedings to prove the signature or official position of the person appearing to have given such a certificate. |
| (5) Nothing in this section affects the admission in evidence of any document which is admissible in evidence apart from this section. |
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| Obtaining of evidence needed for purpose of certain proceedings |
14.—(1) Where, for the purpose of any proceedings in a court in a reciprocating country relating to a maintenance order to which this Act applies, a request is made by or on behalf of that court for the taking in Singapore of the evidence of a person residing in Singapore relating to matters specified in the request, such court in Singapore as may be prescribed has power to take that evidence and, after giving notice of the time and place at which the evidence is to be taken to such persons and in such manner as it thinks fit, is to take the evidence in such manner as may be prescribed.| (2) Evidence taken in compliance with such a request must be sent in the prescribed manner by the prescribed officer of the court to the court in the reciprocating country by or on behalf of which the request was made. |
| (3) Where any person, not being the payer or the payee under the maintenance order to which the proceedings in question relate, is required by virtue of this section to give evidence before a court in Singapore, the court may order that there must be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament such sums as appear to the court reasonably sufficient to compensate that person for the expense, trouble or loss of time properly incurred in or incidental to that person’s attendance. |
| (4) A court in Singapore may, for the purpose of any proceedings in that court under this Act relating to a maintenance order to which this Act applies, request a court in a reciprocating country to take or provide evidence relating to such matters as may be specified in the request and may remit the case to that court for that purpose. |
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| Order, etc., made abroad need not be proved |
15. For the purposes of this Act, unless the contrary is shown —| (a) | any order made by a court in a reciprocating country purporting to bear the seal of that court or to be signed by any person in the person’s capacity as a judge, magistrate or officer of the court, is deemed without further proof to have been duly sealed or signed by that person, as the case may be; | | (b) | the person by whom the order was signed is deemed without further proof to have been a judge, magistrate or officer (as the case may be) of that court when the person signed it and, in the case of an officer, to have been authorised to sign it; and | | (c) | a document purporting to be a certified copy of an order made by a court in a reciprocating country is deemed without further proof to be such a copy. |
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| Payment of sums under orders made abroad; conversion of currency |
16.—(1) Payments of sums due under a registered order are, while the order is registered in a court in Singapore, to be made in such manner and to such person as may be prescribed.| (2) Where the sums required to be paid under a registered order are expressed in a currency other than the currency of Singapore, then, as from the relevant date, the order is to be treated as if it were an order requiring the payment of such sums in the currency of Singapore as, on the basis of the rate of exchange prevailing at that date, are equivalent to the sums so required to be paid. |
| (3) Where the sum specified in any statement (being a statement of the amount of any arrears due under a maintenance order made by a court in a reciprocating country) is expressed in a currency other than the currency of Singapore, that sum is deemed to be such sum in the currency of Singapore as, on the basis of the rate of exchange prevailing at the relevant date, is equivalent to the sum so specified. |
| (4) For the purposes of this section, a written certificate purporting to be signed by an officer of any bank in Singapore certifying that a specified rate of exchange prevailed between currencies at a specified date and that at such rate a specified sum in the currency of Singapore is equivalent to a specified sum in another specified currency is evidence of the rate of exchange so prevailing on that date and of the equivalent sums in terms of the respective currencies. |
(5) In this section, “the relevant date” means —| (a) | in relation to a registered order or to a statement of arrears due under a maintenance order made by a court in a reciprocating country — the date on which the order first becomes a registered order or (if earlier) the date on which it is confirmed by a court in Singapore; and | | (b) | in relation to a registered order which has been varied — the date on which the last order varying that order is registered in a court in Singapore or (if earlier) the date on which the last order varying that order is confirmed by such a court. |
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| Minister may designate country to be reciprocating country |
17.—(1) Where the Minister is satisfied that, in the event of the benefits conferred by this Act being applied to, or to particular classes of, maintenance orders made by the court of any country or territory outside Singapore, similar benefits will in that country or territory be applied to, or to those classes of, maintenance orders made by the courts of Singapore, the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, designate that country or territory as a reciprocating country for the purposes of this Act, and subject to subsection (2), “reciprocating country” means a country or territory that is for the time being so designated.| (2) A country or territory may be designated under subsection (1) as a reciprocating country either as regards maintenance orders generally, or as regards maintenance orders other than those of any specified class, or as regards maintenance orders of one or more specified classes only; and a country or territory which is for the time being so designated otherwise than as regards maintenance orders generally is, for the purposes of this Act, taken to be a reciprocating country only as regards maintenance orders of the class to which the designation extends. |
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| 18.—(1) The Family Justice Rules Committee constituted under section 46(1) of the Family Justice Act 2014 may make Family Justice Rules to regulate and prescribe the procedure and practice to be followed in proceedings under this Act and any matters incidental to or relating to any such procedure or practice. [16/2016] (2) Without limiting subsection (1), Family Justice Rules may be made to prescribe —| (a) | the manner in which any application under this Act is to be made; and | | (b) | the fees payable in relation to proceedings under this Act. [16/2016] |
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| (3) The Family Justice Rules may, instead of providing for any matter, refer to any provision made or to be made about that matter by practice directions issued for the time being by the registrar of the Family Justice Courts. [16/2016] |
| (4) All Family Justice Rules made under this section must be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette. [16/2016] |
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| 18A.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for giving effect to the provisions and purposes of this Act and for the due administration of this Act. [16/2016] | (2) The powers conferred by this section do not extend to any matter for which the Family Justice Rules mentioned in section 18 may be made. [16/2016] |
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19. Where the Minister proposes by a notification in the Gazette under section 17 to designate as a reciprocating country a country or territory to which at the commencement of that section the Maintenance Orders (Facilities for Enforcement) Act (Cap. 168, 1985 Revised Edition) (called in this section the repealed Act) extended, that notification may contain such provisions as the Minister considers expedient for the purposes of securing —| (a) | that the provisions of this Act applied, subject to such modifications as may be specified in the notification, to maintenance orders, or maintenance orders of a specified class —| (i) | made by a court in Singapore against a person residing in that country or territory; or | | (ii) | made by a court in that country or territory against a person residing in Singapore, |
| being orders to which immediately before the date of the commencement of the notification the repealed Act applied; |
| | (b) | that any maintenance order, or maintenance order of a specified class, made by a court in that country or territory which has been confirmed by a court in Singapore under section 6 of the repealed Act and is in force immediately before that date is registered under section 7 of this Act; and | | (c) | that any proceedings brought under or by virtue of a provision under the repealed Act in a court in Singapore which are pending at that date, being proceedings affecting a person resident in that country or territory, are continued as if they had been brought under or by virtue of the corresponding provision of this Act. |
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