Naval Discipline Act 1957

101 Service of proceedings for maintenance, etc.

(1) Any process to be served on an officer or rating who is subject to this Act (in this section referred to as " the defendant") in connection with proceedings for a maintenance order as defined by this section, or for the variation, revocation or revival of such an order, shall be deemed to be duly served on the defendant if served on the commanding officer of the ship or establishment in which the defendant is serving or on the books of which he is borne, and may, without prejudice to any other method of service, be so served within the United Kingdom by registered post.

(2) If, by reason of the ship in which the defendant is serving being at sea or for any other reason, it is impracticable to serve any such process on the said commanding officer, the process shall be deemed to be duly served on the defendant if, not less than three weeks after notice thereof has been given in writing to the Admiralty, it js served on the Secretary of the Admiralty.

(3) Where any such process appoints a hearing at a place more than twenty miles distant from the place where the defendant is serving and his appearance in person will be required at the hearing, the service of the process shall be of no effect unless there is left with it, in the hands of the person on whom it is served, a sum of money sufficient to enable the defendant to attend the hearing and return to that place.

(4) Where any such process is served in the United Kingdom and the defendant will be required to appear in person at the hearing, the service of the process shall be of no effect if it is certified by the commanding officer referred to in subsection (1) of this section to the court by which the process was issued that the defendant is under orders for service on a foreign station and that in the opinion of that officer it would not be possible for the defendant to attend the hearing and return in time to embark for that service.

(5) In this section the expression " maintenance order " means an order made by a court in the United Kingdom or registered in or confirmed by such a court under the provisions of the Maintenance Orders (Facilities for Enforcement) Act, 1920, being an order for the payment of any periodical or other sum specified therein for or in respect of—

(a) the maintenance of any person who is or, where the order is made in proceedings in connection with the dissolution or annulment of a marriage, would if the marriage had subsisted have been, the wife or child of the person against whom the order is made; or

(b) the maintenance of any illegitimate child of whom the person against whom the order is made is the putative father; or

(c) any costs incurred in obtaining the order ; or

(d) any costs incurred in proceedings on appeal against or for the variation, revocation or revival of any such order;

and includes an affiliation order within the meaning of the Affiliation Orders Act, 1914.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as enabling process to be served in connection with proceedings in a court of summary jurisdiction unless the defendant is within the United Kingdom or is serving in a ship on a home station or a naval establishment within the United Kingdom.