Evrol Mariette Peters J:

Introduction

[1] This was an application ("this Application") by the Respondent-Wife in enclosure 17 to, among others, set aside the court order which had granted the Petitioner-Husband leave to serve the Divorce Petition and the relevant cause papers ("the Divorce Petition") out of jurisdiction; to set aside service of the Divorce Petition on the basis that the same had not been duly served on the Respondent-Wife; and a declaration that this court has no jurisdiction over the Respondent-Wife in respect of the divorce proceedings.

[2] To protect the privacy of the parties, and due to the sensitive nature of the issues involved, the Petitioner-Husband and Respondent-Wife have been anonymised in this judgment as HAT and PAT, respectively, whilst the children of the marriage have been anonymised as JAN, XAN and NAN respectively.

The Factual Background

[3] The Petitioner and Respondent (collectively, "the Parties"), both Malaysian citizens, aged 55 and 41 respectively at the time of the hearing of this Application, were married in 2001 in Miri, Sarawak.

[4] In 2004, the Parties moved to Australia, where the Children were born. In 2005, a daughter was born to