Effect of Divorce granted by the Court of other Jurisdiction

This article aims to discuss the procedures to enforce the divorce order granted by other jurisdictions (other country).

For a civil marriage solemnized abroad and dissolved under the laws of a foreign country, one party or both parties to the marriage who is a citizen of Malaysia needs to obtain a declaration order from the High Court in Malaysia pursuant to Section 107 (3) of the Malaysia Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 (hereinafter referred to as LRA 1976).

The acting advocates shall proceed to prepare and file the necessary cause papers including affidavits to the High Court. After that, the High Court will fix a hearing date for the petition. The advocates shall inform the hearing date to the Petitioner. The Petitioner and the advocates will attend the Hearing.

After hearing, The High Court will grant declaration Order if the High Court has no further questions and satisfied with all the procedures done by the advocates. The advocates will subsequently file the declaration Order with the High Court and wait for the High Court to seal the declaration Order.

The last step will be to serve a letter to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (hereinafter referred to as JPN) requesting the officer to enter record on the dissolution of marriage in the divorce registration book of the National Registration Department of Malaysia and update the marital status to “Divorced”.

Practically, it will take one (1) month or more for the JPN to update the parties’ marital status to “Divorced” from the date the request letter being sent by the advocates. Nevertheless, the Petitioner can go to JPN himself or herself by bringing together each sealed copy of the aforesaid declaration Order, CTC copy of the marriage certificate and CTC copy of the identity card to the authorized JPN for the JPN to update the marital status on the spot.

Once the divorce status has been updated, a copy of JPN KC 32 will be issued accordingly.

If you have any questions or require any additional information, please contact our lawyer that you usually deal with.