TOP

Filing of the Originating Summons


Filing the Originating Summons

After completing the Marriage Counselling Programme, you may proceed to file the Originating Summons for divorce to commence divorce proceedings. You may do so whether you are the registrant to the Marriage Counselling Programme or the spouse of the registrant. If you are the party who files the divorce application, you are known as the Plaintiff and your spouse is known as the Defendant in the Court proceedings. 

The “Letter for filing of Originating Summons” is a letter containing instructions on the requirements for filing the divorce application. It is issued by your counselling agency after you have completed the Marriage Counselling Programme. Please complete all the required forms and documents before coming to Syariah Court for filing as the time allocated at the counter for this transaction is only 30 minutes. You should state “N.A” on the items in the forms that are not applicable to you. If your forms or documents are incomplete, you will not be able to file the divorce application. If your filing is successful, you will be given an appointment date to attend mediation or pre-trial conference. It is thus crucial for you to comply with the instructions to avoid unsuccessful attempts to file the divorce application at the Syariah Court. 


Advice and forms

The staff at Syariah Court is unable to dispense any legal advice or assist to draft the contents of any document. If you require legal advice, it would be in your best interests to consult a lawyer. You may refer to the list of lawyers on the website of the Law Society of Singapore

You can download the relevant forms required for filing from our website here.

Please click here for the estimated filing fees.