About the project

The Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee examined certain shortcomings in the prevailing regime relating to transfers of civil proceedings between courts, and the need to rationalise the various provisions relating to transfers in the Subordinate Courts Act (Chapter 321, 1999 Revised Edition), now the State Courts Act (Chapter 321, 2007 Revised Edition). At the time, the Act only allowed for the transfer of civil cases from a Magistrate’s Court to a District Court in very limited situations, and did not allow for cases to be transferred from these lower courts to the High Court.

The Committee recommended legislative reforms that would allow courts more flexibility to transfer cases between courts so that cases may be dealt with as efficiently as possible.

Project status: Completed

• The report was published in May 2004.
• The recommendations in the report were implemented by Parliament through the Subordinate Courts (Amendment) Act 2005 (No 26 of 2005), which was passed on 15 August 2005 and came into force on 1 January 2006.
• The report was cited in the following court judgments:
  • Keppel Singmarine Dockyard Pte Ltd v Ng Chan Teng [2008] SGCA 12, [2008] 2 Singapore Law Reports (Reissue) [SLR(R)] 839 at paragraph 33, Court of Appeal.
  • Ng Chan Teng v Keppel Singmarine Dockyard Pte Ltd [2009] SGHC 17, [2009] 2 SLR(R) 647 at paragraph 16, High Court.

Areas of law

◾ Civil procedure

Click on the image above to view the report

Last updated 10 June 2019