Maintenance Orders Reciprocal Enforcement Act · 2021 Revised Edition · Part 2
5. Variation and revocation of maintenance order
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
This section applies to a maintenance order a certified copy of which has been sent to a reciprocating country in pursuance of section 3 and to a maintenance order made by virtue of section 4 which has been confirmed by a competent court in such a country.
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 periodical payment of sums of money towards the maintenance of any person, being a person to whom the person liable to make payments under the order is, according to the law applied in the place where the order was made, liable to maintain; 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 his funeral expenses, and in the case of a maintenance order which has been varied, means that order as varied;
A court in Brunei Darussalam having power to vary a maintenance order to which this section applies shall have power to vary that order by a provisional order.
court
"court" includes any tribunal or person having power to make, confirm, enforce, vary or revoke a maintenance order; B. L. R.O. 1;2021 Maintenance Orders 6 Reciprocal Enforcemen1
Where the court hearing an application for the variation of a maintenance order to which this section applies proposes to vary it by increasing the rate of the payments under the order then, unless either -
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both the payer and the payee under the order appear in the proceedings; or
the applicant appears and the appropriate process has been duly served on the other party;
the order varying the maintenance order shall be a provisional order.
Where a court in Brunei Darussalam makes a provisional order varying a maintenance order to which this section applies, an officer of the court shall send to the court in a reciprocating country having power to confirm the provisional order a certified copy of the provisional order, together with a document, authenticated by the court, setting out or summarising the evidence given in the proceedings.
provisional order
"provisional order" means (according to the context) - (a) an order made by a court in Brunei Darussalam 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 Brunei Darussalam having power under this Act to confirm it;
Where a certified copy of a provisional order made by a court in a reciprocating country, being an order varying or revoking a maintenance order to which this section applies, together with a document, duly authenticated, setting out or summarising the evidence given in the proceedings in which the provisional order was made, is received by the court in Brunei Darussalam which made the maintenance order, that court may -
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;
confirm or refuse to confirm the provisional order; and
if that order is an order varying the maintenance order, confirm it either without alteration or with such alterations as it thinks reasonable.
For the purpose of determining whether a provisional order should be confirmed under subsection (5), the court shall proceed as if an application for the variation or revocation of the maintenance order in question had been made to it.
Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been varied by an order (including a provisional order which has been confirmed)
made by a court in Brunei Darussalam or by a competent court in a reciprocating country, the maintenance order shall, as from the date on which the order was made, have effect as varied by that order and, where that order was a provisional order, as if that order had been made in the form in which it was confirmed and as if it has never been a provisional order.
reciprocating country
"reciprocating country" has the meaning assigned to it by section 17;
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Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been revoked by an order made by a court in Brunei Darussalam or by a competent court in a reciprocating country, including a provisional order made by the last-mentioned court which has been confirmed by a court in
Brunei Darussalam, the maintenance order, as from the date on which the order was made, is deemed to have ceased to have effect except as respects any arrears due under the maintenance order at that date.
Where, before a maintenance order made by virtue of section 4 is confirmed, a document, duly authenticated, setting out or summarising evidence taken in a reciprocating country for the purpose of proceedings relating to the confirmation of the order is received by the court in Brunei
Darussalam which made the order. or that court, in compliance with a request made to it by a court in such a country, takes the evidence of a person residing in Brunei Darussalam for the purpose of those proceedings, the court in Brunei Darussalam which made the order shall consider that evidence and if, having done so, it appears to it that the order ought not to have been made, the court -
shall give to the person on whose application the maintenance order was made an opportunity to consider that evidence, to make representations with respect to it and to adduce further evidence; and
may, after considering all the evidence and any representations made by that person, revoke the maintenance order.
Terms defined in s 2
certified copy
Defined · s 2"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
Defined · s 2"court" includes any tribunal or person having power to make, confirm, enforce, vary or revoke a maintenance order; B. L. R.O. 1;2021 Maintenance Orders 6 Reciprocal Enforcemen1
maintenance order
Defined · s 2"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 periodical payment of sums of money towards the maintenance of any person, being a person to whom the person liable to make payments under the order is, according to the law applied in the place where the order was made, liable to maintain; 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 his funeral expenses, and in the case of a maintenance order which has been varied, means that order as varied;
payer
Defined · s 2"payer", in relation to a maintenance order, means the person liable to make payments under the order;
provisional order
Defined · s 2"provisional order" means (according to the context) - (a) an order made by a court in Brunei Darussalam 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 Brunei Darussalam having power under this Act to confirm it;
reciprocating country
Defined · s 2"reciprocating country" has the meaning assigned to it by section 17;
Part
Orders Made by Courts in Reciprocating Countries
Part