Power of summary Courts to make provisional maintenance order against persons resident in reciprocating territories

Section 6 of the Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act, 1921 deals with power of summary Courts to make provisional maintenance order against persons resident in reciprocating territories. Where application is made to a Court of summary jurisdiction in [India] for a maintenance order against any person, and it is proved that that person is resident in a reciprocating territory, the Court may, in the absence of that person, if after hearing the evidence it is satisfied of the justice o The Act came into force on 05 Oct 1921.

(1) Where application is made to a Court of summary jurisdiction in ¹ [India] for a maintenance order against any person, and it is proved that that person is resident in a reciprocating territory, the Court may, in the absence of that person, if after hearing the evidence it is satisfied of the justice of the application, make any such order as it might have made if that person had wilfully neglected to attend the Court; but in such case the order shall be provisional only and shall have no effect unless and until confirmed by a competent Court in such territory.

(2) The evidence of every witness who is examined on any such application shall be reduced to writing, and such deposition shall be read over to, and signed by, him.

(3) Where such an order is made, the Court shall send to the Central Government, for transmission to the proper authority of the reciprocating territory in which the person against whom the order is made is alleged to reside, the depositions so taken and a certified copy of the order together with a statement of the grounds on which the making of the order might have been opposed if the person against whom the order is made had been duly served with a summons and had appeared at the hearing and such information as the Court possesses for facilitating the identification of that person and ascertaining his whereabouts.

(4) Where any such provisional order has come before a Court in a reciprocating territory for confirmation, and the order has by that Court been remitted to the Court of summary jurisdiction which made the order for the purpose of taking further evidence, that Court shall, after giving the prescribed notice, proceed to take the evidence in like manner and subject to the like conditions as the evidence in support of the original application.

(5) If it appears to the Court hearing such evidence that the order ought not to have been made, the Court may rescind the order, but in any other case the depositions shall be sent to the Central Government and dealt with in like manner as the original depositions.

(6) The confirmation of an order made under this section shall not affect any power of a Court of summary jurisdiction to vary or rescind that order:

Provided that, on the making of a varying or rescinding order, the Court shall send a certified copy thereof to the Central Government for transmission to the proper authority of the reciprocating territory in which the original order was confirmed, or to which it was sent for confirmation and that, in the case of an order varying the original order, the order shall not have any effect unless and until confirmed in like manner as the original order.

Section 6, The Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act, 1921 (Act 18 of 1921).