Section 5
Variation and revocation of maintenance order
of Maintenance Orders Reciprocal Enforcement Act
(1)
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.
(2)
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.
(3)
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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(a)
both the payer and the payee under the order appear in the proceedings; or
(b)
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.
(4)
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.
(5)
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 -
(a)
confirm or refuse to confirm the provisional order; and
(b)
if that order is an order varying the maintenance order, confirm it either without alteration or with such alterations as it thinks reasonable.
(6)
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.
(7)
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.
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(8)
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.
(9)
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 -
(a)
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
(b)
may, after considering all the evidence and any representations made by that person, revoke the maintenance order.