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[3. Declaration of reciprocal arrangements.— If the Central Government is satisfied that
legal provision exists in any country or territory outside India for the enforcement within that
country or territory of maintenance orders made by Courts in India, the Central Government may,
by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that this Act applies in respect of that country or
territory and thereupon it shall apply accordingly.]
4. Registration in India of maintenance orders made in the reciprocating territories.— (1)
Where a maintenance order has, whether before or after the passing of this Act, been made against
any person by any Court in any reciprocating territory, and a certified copy of the order has been
transmitted by the proper authority of that territory to the Central Government, the Central
Government shall send a copy of the order to the prescribed officer of a Court in
[India] for
registration, and, on receipt thereof, the order shall be registered in the prescribed manner.
(2) The Court in which an order is to be so registered as aforesaid shall, if the Court by which
the order was made was, in the opinion of the Central Government, a Court of superior jurisdiction,
be a High Court, and, if the Court was not, in its opinion, a Court of superior jurisdiction, be a
Court of summary jurisdiction.
5. Transmission of maintenance orders made in India.—Where a Court in
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[India] has,
whether before or after the commencement of this Act, made a maintenance order against any
person, and it is proved to that Court that the person against whom the order was made is resident
in a reciprocating territory, the Court shall send to the Central Government, for transmission to the
proper authority of that territory, a certified copy of the order.
6. Power of summary Courts to make provisional maintenance orders against persons
resident in reciprocating territories.— (1) Where application is made to a Court of summary
jurisdiction in
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[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.
1. Subs. by Act 47 of 1952, s. 4, for section 3.
2. Subs. by Act 3 of 1951, s. 3 and the Schedule, for “the States”.