DEBTORS ACT 1871 - SECT 3

This legislation has been repealed.

DEBTORS ACT 1871 - SECT 3

3 .         Power to commit for small debts

                Subject to the provisions herein after mentioned, and to the prescribed rules, any Court may commit to prison, for a term not exceeding six weeks, or until payment of the sum due, any person who makes default in payment of any debt or instalment of any debt due from him in pursuant of any order or judgment of that or any other competent Court.

                Provided —

                  (i)         That the jurisdiction by this section given of committing a person to prison shall, in the case of any Court other than the Supreme Court, be exercised only by an order made in open court, showing on its face the ground on which it is issued.

                  (ii)         That such jurisdiction shall only be exercised where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court that the person making default either has, or has had since the date of the order or judgment, the means to pay the sum in respect of which he has made default, and has refused or neglected, or refuses or neglects, to pay the same.

                Proof of the means of the person making default may be given in such manner as the Court thinks just; and for the purpose of such proof, the debtor and any witnesses may be summoned and examined on oath, according to the prescribed rules.

                Any jurisdiction by this section given to the Supreme Court may be exercised by the Chief Justice sitting in Chambers, or otherwise, in the prescribed manner.

                For the purposes of this section any Court may direct any debt due from any person, in pursuance of any order or judgment of that or any other Competent Court, to be paid by instalments, and may from time to time rescind or vary such order.

                Persons committed under this section by the Supreme Court may be committed to the prison in which they would have been confined if arrested on a writ of capias ad satisfaciendum; and every order of committal by the Supreme Court shall, subject to the prescribed rules, be issued, obeyed, and executed in the like manner as such writ.

                This section, so far as it relates to any Local Court, shall be deemed to be substitution for sections 51 and 52 of the Ordinance for the recovery of Small Debts and Demands, 1863 ; ³ and that Ordinance shall be construed accordingly, and shall extend to orders made by the Local Court with respect to sums due, in pursuance of any order or Judgment of any Court other than a Local Court.

                No imprisonment under this section shall operate as a satisfaction or extinguishment of any debt or demand or cause of action, or deprive any person of any right to take out execution against the lands, goods, or chattels of the person imprisoned, in the same manner as if such imprisonment had not taken place.

                Any person imprisoned under this section shall be discharged out of custody upon a certificate signed in the prescribed manner, to the effect that he has satisfied the debt or instalment of a debt, in respect of which he was imprisoned, together with the prescribed costs (if any).

        [Section 3 amended by No. 4 of 1965 s.2.]

[ 4.                 Section 4 repealed by No. 36 of 1935 s.3.]