SINGAPORE DIVORCE LAW INFORMATION
(Supplied by the Family Court of Singapore)
QUESTION:What are the reasons ("grounds") on which I can get a
divorce?
The court will only grant you a divorce if it is satisfied that
your marriage has "irretrievably broken down". In order to prove
that your marriage has "irretrievably broken down", you must be
able to show the existence of at least one of the following facts
("grounds"):
(a) That your spouse has committed adultery (i.e. had consensual
sexual relations with a person other than yourself), and that you
find it intolerable to live with him/her; and/or
(b) That your spouse has behaved in such a way that you cannot
reasonably be expected to live with him/her (for example, your
spouse has committed family violence against you); and/or
(c) That your spouse has deserted you for a continuous period of at
least 2 years just before you start your divorce proceedings;
and/or
(d) That you and your spouse have lived apart for a continuous
period of at least 3 years just before you start divorce
proceedings, and your spouse agrees to the divorce; and/or
(e) That you and your spouse have lived apart for a continuous
period of at least 4 years just before you start divorce
proceedings. In this case, your spouse does not need to agree to
the divorce.
Note that for a) above, if you continue to live with your spouse
for more than 6 months after you discover the adultery, you cannot
rely on adultery to petition for a divorce.
For c) above, desertion means leaving you without your agreement
and without any reasonable cause. In exceptional cases, where your
spouse has without reasonable cause driven you out of the home and
continues to exclude you from the house for a period of two years,
that can also constitute desertion by your spouse.
For d) and e) above, "living apart" requires the intention of
staying apart from each other with the view of ending the marriage,
as well as the physical act of staying apart. However, you may
still be considered as staying apart even if you and your spouse
are staying at the same address, if you and your spouse have led
completely separate lives and have separate households (i.e. not
staying in the same bedroom, not having sexual relations, not doing
any household chores such as cooking, washing, cleaning, ironing,
etc. together, or for each other; not having meals together as a
family; not going out together as a family, etc.) for the required
length of time, for the purposes of obtaining a divorce based on
three or four years' separation.
QUESTION:My spouse and I got married overseas/My spouse and I have
not lived in Singapore for many years--can we still get a divorce
in the Singapore courts?
You can get a divorce in the Singapore courts even if you got
married overseas, or if you do not live in Singapore, so long
as:
(a) Either you or your spouse has lived in Singapore for a period
of 3 years just before your divorce proceedings start; or
(b) Either you or your spouse is "domiciled" in Singapore at the
start of your divorce proceedings, i.e. that Singapore is your
permanent home. A Singapore citizen and a Singapore permanent
resident is assumed to be "domiciled" in Singapore, unless the
contrary is proved.
But even if you can prove one or both of the above factors, your
spouse may argue that it would be more appropriate for the divorce
proceedings to be dealt with in another country, for various
reasons, for example, because you are both citizens of that
country, and are intending to return there to live permanently in a
short while.
