Maintenance Orders Act 1950

3 Jurisdiction of English courts to make affiliation orders

(1) A court in England shall have jurisdiction in proceedings under the Bastardy Laws Amendment Act, 1872, or under section forty-four of the National Assistance Act, 1948, or section twenty-six of the Children Act, ,1948, for an affiliation order against a man residing in Scotland or Northern Ireland, if the act of intercourse resulting in the birth of the child or any act of intercourse between the parties which may have resulted therein took place in England.

(2) Where the mother of a child resides in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and the person alleged to be the father in England, a court of summary jurisdiction having jurisdiction in the place in which the person alleged to be the father resides shall have jurisdiction in proceedings by the mother for an affiliation order against him under the Bastardy Laws Amendment Act, 1872.

(3) A court in England by which an affiliation order has been made under any of the enactments mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall have jurisdiction in proceedings by or against a person residing in Scotland or Northern Ireland for the revocation, revival or variation of that order.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in section three of the Bastardy Laws Amendment Act, 1872, an application under that section for an affiliation order in respect of a child born before the commencement of this Act may be made to a court having jurisdiction by virtue of subsection (1) of this, section at any time within one year after the commencement of this Act, if—

(a) the person alleged to be the father of the child ceased to reside in England before the expiration of one year from the birth of the child; and

(b) the circumstances are such that if that person had become resident in England immediately before the application, the court would have had jurisdiction in proceedings under the said section three apart from the provisions of this section.