Section 98 Matrimonial Causes Act 1970

Section 98 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1970 is about Continuance of proceedings for dissolution or nullity of marriage, or judicial separation. It provides as follows:

(1) Except as provided by this Part of this Act, the law to be applied, and the practice and procedure to be followed, in and in relation to pending proceedings, being proceedings for a decree of dissolution or nullity of marriage, or of judicial separation, shall be the same as if this Act had not been made.

(2) Without prejudice to any power that the court has by virtue of subsection (1) of this section to amend or permit the amendment of a petition, the court may in any such proceedings, upon application by the petitioner and on such conditions, if any, as the court thinks fit, permit the petitioner to amend the petition so as to include a ground of relief provided by this Act and not already included in the petition; and where such a ground is so included, then, in relation to that ground, the provisions of this Act applicable in relation to that ground shall apply as if the proceedings had been instituted under this Act.

(3) Notwithstanding section 114(4) of this Act, a reference in this Act to the date of the petition or the date of institution of proceedings shall, in relation to a ground of relief included or sought to be included in a petition by virtue of the subsection (2) of this section, be read as a reference to the date on which the application for leave to amend the petition was instituted.

(4) Where, in pending proceedings for a decree of dissolution of marriage, the facts and circumstances that have been established, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, by the petitioner in support of a ground included in the petition are such that they would have established a ground or grounds for the same relief under this Act if this Act had been in force at the date of the petition and the proceedings had been instituted under this Act, the bars to relief applicable in relation to the ground included in the petition shall be those that would be applicable in proceedings on the ground that would have been established under this Act, or, if more than one ground would have been established, such one of those grounds as most nearly corresponds to the ground included in the petition, and no other bars.

(5) In the case of pending proceedings, being proceedings for a decree of nullity of marriage on the ground that the marriage is voidable by reason of the parties being within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity under the law of a State, a decree of nullity of the marriage shall not be made after the commencement of this Act if the parties were not at the time of the marriage within one of the degrees of consanguinity or affinity set out in the First Schedule to this Act.

(6) A decree of dissolution or nullity of marriage or of judicial separation may be made in pending proceedings either-
(a) on any basis of jurisdiction that would have been applicable to the proceedings if this Act had not been made; or

(b) on any basis of jurisdiction applicable to proceedings under Part II of this Act for the same relief.

(7) A reference in this section to a bar to relief shall be read as a reference to a bar to the granting of the relief sought, whether absolute or in the discretion of the court, other than a bar arising by virtue of section 30 of this Act.

(8) In this section- “date of the petition”, in relation to a petition, means the date on which the petition was filed in, or issued out of, a court; “petition” includes a writ of summons, a cross-petition, a counter-petition, a counter-claim and an answer; “petitioner” includes a plaintiff, a cross-petitioner, a counter-petitioner, a defendant counter-claiming and a respondent seeking relief in an answer.

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