Provisional orders of maintenance against persons resident in England or Northern Ireland

(1) Where an application is made to a summary jurisdiction court in Belize for a maintenance order against any person, and it is proved that that person is resident in England or Northern Ireland, the court may in his absence if after hearing the evidence it is satisfied of the justice of the application, make any order it might have made if a summons had been duly served on him and he had failed to appear at the hearing, but in that case the order shall be provisional only and shall have no effect unless and until confirmed by a competent court in England or Northern Ireland as aforesaid. (2) The evidence of any witness examined on the application shall be put into writing, and his deposition shall be read over to and signed by him. (3) Where an order is made under subsection (1) of this section, the court shall send to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for transmission to a Secretary of State, 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 any information the court possesses for facilitating the identification of that person and ascertaining his whereabouts. (4) Where any provisional order under subsection (1) of this section has come before a court in England or Northern Ireland for confirmation, and has by that court been remitted to the summary jurisdiction court which made it for the purpose of taking further evidence, that court or any other summary jurisdiction court sitting and acting for the same place shall, 53 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 upon hearing the evidence it appears to the court 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 Minister of Foreign Affairs and dealt with in like manner as the original depositions. (6) The confirmation of an order made under this section shall not affect any power of a summary jurisdiction court to vary or rescind that order. (7) On the making of, varying or rescinding of an order the court shall send a certified copy thereof to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for transmission to a Secretary of State and, in the case of an order varying the original order, the order shall not have any effect unless and until confirmed in like manner as the original order. (8) The applicant shall have the same right of appeal, if any, against a refusal to make a provisional order as he would have had against a refusal to make the order had a summons been duly served on the person against whom the order is sought to be made.