Women’s Charter 1961 - Singapore Statutes Online

PART 2

MONOGAMOUS MARRIAGES

Disability to contract marriages

4.—(1) Every person who on 15 September 1961 is lawfully married under any law, religion, custom or usage to one or more spouses shall be incapable during the continuance of that marriage or marriages of contracting a valid marriage under any law, religion, custom or usage with any person other than such spouse or spouses.

(2) Every person who on 15 September 1961 is lawfully married under any law, religion, custom or usage to one or more spouses and who subsequently ceases to be married to that spouse or all the spouses shall, if he or she thereafter marries again, be incapable during the continuance of that marriage of contracting a valid marriage with any other person under any law, religion, custom or usage.

(3) Every person who on 15 September 1961 is unmarried and who after that date marries under any law, religion, custom or usage shall be incapable during the continuance of that marriage of contracting a valid marriage with any other person under any law, religion, custom or usage.

(4) Nothing in this section affects the operation of Part 3 in relation to marriages solemnised in Singapore after 15 September 1961.

Void marriages

5.—(1) Every marriage contracted in Singapore or elsewhere in contravention of section 4 is void.

(2) If any male person lawfully married under any law, religion, custom or usage, during the continuance of that marriage, contracts a union with a woman, that woman shall have no right of succession or inheritance on the death intestate of such male person.

(3) Nothing in this section affects the liability of any person to pay such maintenance as may be directed to be paid by that person under any written law.

[7/2016]

Offence

6. Any person lawfully married under any law, religion, custom or usage who during the continuance of that marriage purports to contract a marriage in Singapore or elsewhere under any law, religion, custom or usage in contravention of section 4 is deemed to commit the offence of marrying again during the lifetime of the husband or wife (as the case may be) within the meaning of section 6A.

[15/2019]

Marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife

6A. Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction —

(a)

in a case where the offender concealed from the person with whom the subsequent marriage is contracted the fact of the former marriage, be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding $15,000; and

(b)

in any other case, be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000.

Exceptions.—This section does not extend to any person whose marriage, with such husband or wife, has been declared void by a court of competent jurisdiction, nor to any person who contracts a marriage during the life of a former husband or wife, if such husband or wife, at the time of the subsequent marriage, has been continually absent from such person for a period of 7 years, and has not been heard of by such person as being alive within that time, provided the person contracting such subsequent marriage, before the marriage takes place, informs the person with whom the marriage is contracted, of the real state of facts so far as the same are within his or her knowledge.

[15/2019]

Cohabitation caused by deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage

6B. Any person (A), who by deceit causes any person of the opposite sex (B) who is not lawfully married to A to believe that B is lawfully married to A and to cohabit or have sexual intercourse with A in that belief, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding $15,000.

[15/2019]

Marriage ceremony gone through fraudulently without lawful marriage

6C. Any person who dishonestly or fraudulently goes through the ceremony of being married, knowing that he or she is not as a result lawfully married, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000.

[15/2019]

Continuance of marriage

7. Every marriage solemnised in Singapore after 15 September 1961, other than a marriage which is void under the provisions of this Act, shall continue until dissolved —

(a)	by the death of one of the parties;
(b)	by order of a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(c)	by a declaration made by a court of competent jurisdiction that the marriage is null and void.

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