MSF: Couples may plead mutual agreement as grounds for divorce from July 1

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) announced a change to the Women’s Charter on Monday (May 13), saying that couples may get a divorce based on mutual agreement beginning from July 1 of this year.

A divorce in Singapore may take place when parties can demonstrate an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage.

Prior to this, proof of adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion for two years, or separation for three or four years (with consent for divorce) was necessary. And now, divorce by mutual agreement has been added to the list.

MSF also said that the mandatory co-parenting programme (CPP) for couples with children under 21 years old who are on the simplified divorce track has been extended.

The law that introduced divorce by mutual agreement was passed by the Parliament of Singapore on Jan 10, 2022, through the Women’s Charter Amendment Bill 43/2021.

Couples who cite divorce by mutual agreement in their proceedings are required to provide the court with reasons for their conclusion of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and show proof of their endeavors at reconciliation.

In addition to these, they need to provide the court with arrangements regarding their children and financial affairs. If the court feels the couple might still reconcile, it could reject the divorce.

In 2021, Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State for the Ministry of Social and Family Development, shared some of the discussions she had had with people concerning the issues they faced during the process of obtaining a divorce.

“The participants proposed that where there is mutual agreement to a divorce, couples should not have to state a ‘fault’… Several of our participants shared that having to state a fault ‘forces’ one of the parties to take the blame.

It also causes the couple to revisit their pain as they have to give sufficient ‘details’ of the fault. In addition, having to file their papers as ‘plaintiff’ or ‘defendant’ forces them to take on opposing positions in a fight.

All these factors raise the acrimony in divorce and make it difficult for them to move on.”

She echoed some of these points in 2022, during the second reading of the amendments to the Women’s Charter, and added that acrimony in divorce could “cause the child to be caught in the middle as allegations of misdeeds are being made by either or both of their parents against the other.” /TISG

Read also: AWARE backs Sun Xueling’s finding on need for no-fault divorce