VQB v VQC [2021] SGHCF 5

Outcome: Appeal dismissed.  

Facts

1 The Wife appealed against the District Judge’s decision to dismiss her application to set aside the Interim Judgment and the Final Judgment.   

Court’s Decision:

2 A Final Judgment dissolves the marriage and cannot be set aside. The status of the parties as a married couple is bought to a permanent and an unsalvageable end. The only way a divorced couple can be remarried is for them to remarry in accordance with the requisite legal formalities of registration and solemnisation. A court cannot pronounce them husband and wife again: at [14].

3 The Interim Judgment is different from the Final Judgment. It is only an interim order of the court and the court may refuse to finalise it. An Interim Judgment may be set aside before the Final Judgment is made, but once the Final Judgment is made, the marriage is at a permanent end. It cannot be reinstated although it may be renewed. The Women’s Charter 1961 makes no provision for setting aside a Final Judgment. The only conceivable exception is when the Final Judgment was obtained by fraud, but even then, it may have to be a fraud that taints the Final Judgment itself – such as a forgery of the order of court: at [16].

This summary is provided to assist the public to have a better understanding of the Court’s judgment. It is not intended to be a substitute for the reasons of the Court. All numbers in bold font and square brackets refer to the corresponding paragraph numbers in the Court’s judgment.