PROBATE AND ADMINISTRATION (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister of State for Law (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, this Bill amends the Probate and Administration Act and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act to enable Singapore to restore certain reciprocal arrangements which existed between Singapore and Hong Kong before Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, thus ceasing to be part of the Commonwealth.

The legislative approach employed to achieve this aim is similar to that employed in the Extradition (Amendment) Act 1998 to restore the pre-existing extradition arrangements between Singapore and Hong Kong. Members may recall that the approach taken was to amend the definition of "foreign State" to include territories which are not states in their own right.

Sir, the first set of amendments concerns the Probate and Administration Act. Section 46 currently provides that a probate or letter of administration granted by a court anywhere in the Commonwealth can be re-sealed by our High Court. Upon such re-sealing, the probate or letter of administration will be recognised by our courts as having the same effect as if it is granted by the High Court in Singapore. At present, the procedure of re-sealing under section 46 is not available for probate and letters of administration granted in countries or territories outside the Commonwealth. In other words, there is no provision under our law for the recognition of probate or letters of administration granted in countries or territories outside the Commonwealth.

What the Bill proposes to do is to allow the re-sealing procedure to be extended to any country or territory outside the Commonwealth. This is done by allowing the Minister to declare, by a notification in the Gazette, that the re-sealing procedure will apply to a particular country or territory outside the Commonwealth.

The final amendment concerning the Probate and Administration Act is the repeal of section 47. Section 47 applies to probate and letters of administration granted in British protectorates, which are not part of the dominions of the British Crown. This provision is obsolete as there are no such protectorates today.

The second set of amendments relates to the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. The Bill amends section 2(1) by inserting definitions of "country" and "foreign country", to make clear that the term "foreign country" includes a territory which is not a state in its own right.

Lastly, for consistency, the Bill will also amend section 31 of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act by defining the term "foreign country", which is used in that section, to include any territory outside Singapore. This will enable the Singapore Government, if it wishes to do so in future, to enter into reciprocal arrangements for the exchange of information with governments of territories which are not considered states in their own right.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee].

Bill considered in Committee

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Clause 1 -

The Chairman: In page 1, line 5, the citation year "1998" will be changed to "1999". This will be done.

Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 2 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 3 -

The Chairman: In page 2, line 17, the citation year "1998" will be changed to "1999"; and

In page 3, line 17, the citation year "1998" will be changed to "1999". These will be done.

Clause 3 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 4 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 5 -

The Chairman: In page 4, line 2, the citation year "1998" will be changed to 1999". This will be done.

Clause 5 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 6 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported without amendment, read a Third time and passed.