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Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal
Enforcement) Act 1975

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

An Act to make provision for the enforcement in Singapore of maintenance orders made in reciprocating countries and vice versa.

[3 May 1976: Except section 19(1);

1 January 2017: Section 19(1)]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act is the Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1975.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“affiliation order” means an order (however described) adjudging, finding or declaring a person to be the father of a child, whether or not it also provides for the maintenance of the child;

“certificate of arrears”, in relation to a maintenance order, means a certificate certifying that the sums specified in the certificate is to the best of the information or belief of the officer giving the certificate the amount of the arrears due under the order at the date of the certificate or (as the case may be) that to the best of the officer’s information or belief there are no arrears due under the order at that date;

“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;

“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;

“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;

“payee”, in relation to a maintenance order, means the person entitled to the payments for which the order provides;

“payer”, in relation to a maintenance order, means the person liable to make payments under the 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;

“reciprocating country” has the meaning given by section 17;

“registered order” means a maintenance order which is for the time being registered in a court in Singapore under this Act;

“registering court”, in relation to a registered order, means the court in which that order is for the time being registered under this Act;

“responsible authority”, in relation to a reciprocating country, means any person who in that country has functions similar to those of the Minister under this Act.

[2/2012]