This Bill seeks to provide for the solemnization and registration of monogamous marriages and to amend and consolidate the law relating to divorce, the rights and duties of married persons, the maintenance of wives and children and the punishment of offences against women and girls. The provisions of the Bill (other than Parts I, X and XI of the Bill) are inapplicable to persons married under the provisions of the Muslim law.
Part II of the Bill is largely new. It seeks to provide that any person who is already lawfully married under any law, religion, custom or usage shall during the continuance of such marriage be incapable of contracting any further marriage. Any such person who purports to contract a marriage under any law, religion, custom or usage will be guilty of the offence of bigamy. All marriages solemnized in Singapore after the coming into operation of the Ordinance shall continue in force until dissolved by the death of one of the parties or an order or declaration of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Part III of the Bill provides for the solemnization of marriages by the Registrar or by persons who are licensed to solemnize marriages under the Ordinance. The provisions of this Part in the main re-enact the provisions of the Civil Marriage Ordinance with the modification that marriages can be solemnized not only by the Registrar but by other persons duly licensed. The minimum age for marriage is raised to eighteen years but power is given to the Minister in his discretion to authorize marriages where the female party is under the age of eighteen years. Clause 10 is new and provides that no marriage shall be valid if the parties intending marriage are lineal blood relatives or are brother and sister by the same father and mother or the same father or mother.
Part IV of the Bill provides for the registration of marriages and in the main re-enacts the provisions of the Civil Marriage Ordinance, with the modifications necessary to provide that marriages solemnized by the Registrar shall be registered by the Registrar himself while marriages solemnized by other persons duly licensed shall be registered on the application of the parties to the marriage by a Deputy Registrar.
Part V of the Bill deals with penalties and miscellaneous provisions relating to the solemnization and registration of marriages. It re-enacts in the main the provisions of the Civil Marriage Ordinance (Cap. 38) and also provides for new offences for omission to appear before the Deputy Registrar to cause the registration of a marriage (clause 33) and for interference with marriage (clause 35).
Part VI of the Bill deals with the rights and duties of husband and wife. This Part in the main re-enacts the provisions of the Married Women’s Property Ordinance (Cap. 45). Clause 45 is new and sets out in general terms the rights and duties of husband and wife.
Part VII of the Bill deals with the maintenance of wives and children and re-enacts the provisions of the Married Women and Children (Maintenance) Ordinance (Cap. 44), with however the important modifications contained in clause 62. Clause 62(1) gives a married woman a right to maintenance in certain circumstances and follows the provisions of the United Kingdom Summary Jurisdiction (Separation and Maintenance) Acts, 1895 to 1949. Clause 62(2) gives the court a discretion on the amount of maintenance to be awarded not only in the case of legitimate children but also in the case of illegitimate children.
Part VIII of the Bill deals with the enforcement of maintenance orders and in the main re-enacts the provisions of the Maintenance (Facilities for Enforcement) Ordinance, 1959. The provisions of this Part are made applicable to maintenance orders made in divorce proceedings.
Part IX of the Bill deals with divorce and in the main re-enacts the provisions of the Divorce Ordinance. The most important amendment of the law in this Part is the extension of the jurisdiction of the court to hear applications for divorce by a wife, following the provisions of the United Kingdom Matrimonial Causes Act, 1950.
Part X of the Bill deals with the punishment of offences against women and girls and re-enacts with amendments the provisions of the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance (Cap. 126). The principal amendments which are proposed in this Part may be summarised as follows: —
(a)
penalties are provided for persons convicted of keeping or managing places of assignation used for the purpose of supplying or acting as centres of communication between prostitutes and their clients (clause 132);
(b)
the defence of reasonable cause to believe that a girl was of or above the age of sixteen will be available only in the case of a man of twenty-four years of age or under, and only on the first occasion on which he is charged with such an offence (clause 128);
(c)
where a person is convicted of keeping, managing, assisting in the management of a place of assignation or brothel, or being the occupier and knowingly permitting a place to be used as a place of assignation or brothel, it is made obligatory for such person to deliver up possession of the premises to the owner, failing which the owner may determine the lease or contract of tenancy (clause 135);
(d)
where a girl in respect of whom an offence under the Ordinance is alleged to have been committed is under sixteen years of age, it is made obligatory for court proceedings to be dealt with in camera (clause 138);
(e)
provision is made for the demolition by Court order of structural contrivances which facilitate the running of a place of assignation or of a brothel (clause 136);
(f)
newspaper reports of proceedings under the Ordinance in any court may not reveal the name, address or other particulars of any woman or girl in respect of whom the offence is alleged to be committed (clause 138);
(g)
girls under twenty-one years of age (instead of under eighteen years of age as in the present Ordinance) may be detained by the Director in a place of safety if he has reason to believe that they are being trained or used for immoral purposes (clause 144);
(h)
finger impressions and photograph of any person (who has committed or is about to commit a breach of the provisions of the Ordinance) taken on the direction of the Director, are required to be returned to such person or destroyed on the expiry of five years, unless the person has during the period of five years been convicted of an offence under the Ordinance (clause 155);
(i)
provision is made for the appointment by the Minister for a Board of Visitors for every place of safety to advise and make recommendations to the Director on such matters as he may refer to it (clause 163);
(j)
provision is also made for the appointment by the Minister of a Discharge Committee to advise and make recommendations on the discharge and aftercare of girls in places of safety (clause 164);
(k)
the penalties for offences have been increased —
(i)
for certain offences relating to prostitution and trafficking in women and girls, imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years and also to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars is now to be imposed instead of imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both (clauses 128 and 129);
(ii)
the punishment for knowingly living wholly or in part on the earnings of the prostitution of another person has been increased from imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years and also to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars (clause 131);
(iii)
for keeping or managing a brothel and for permitting premises to be used as a brothel whether as occupier or owner, a person will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to a fine not exceeding three thousand dollars or to both (instead of as formerly, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to both), and on a second or subsequent conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or to both such fine and imprisonment (instead of as formerly, to imprisonment not exceeding twelve months or a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or both) (clause 133).
Part XI of the Bill gives power to the Minister to make rules. It also contains a provision to provide that nothing in the Ordinance shall affect the validity of any marriage solemnized under any law, religion, custom or usage prior to the 2nd day of March 1961.
