When courts may commit

(1) Subject to the provisions hereinafter 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 pursuance of any order or judgment of that or any other competent court, Provided that, (a) the jurisdiction given by this section of committing a person to prison shall, in the case of a district court, be exercised only by a magistrate by an order made in open court and showing on its face the ground on which it is issued; (b) such jurisdiction shall only be exercised where it is proved to the satisfaction of the 6 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 it. (2) Proof of the ability or inability of the person making default may be given in such manner as the court thinks just, and for the purposes of such proof the debtor and any witnesses may be summoned and examined on oath according to the prescribed rules. (3) Any jurisdiction given by this section to the Supreme Court may be exercised by a judge sitting in chambers or otherwise, in the prescribed manner. (4) 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 court to be paid by instalments, and may from time to time rescind or vary such order. (5) Persons committed under this section shall be committed to the prison at Hattieville or any other prison in Belize and every order of committal shall, subject to the prescribed rules, be issued, obeyed and executed in the like manner as would have been done under a writ of capias ad satisfaciendum. (6) 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. (7) 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 7 instalment of a debt, in respect of which he was imprisoned, together with the prescribed costs, if any.