This is an application under s 3 of the Mental Disorders and Treatment Act (Cap 178, 1985 Ed) for an order directing an inquiry for the purposes of determining whether the subject person, Mdm Kishen Kaur (hereinafter called 'the patient') who is also the wife of the respondent, is or is not of unsound mind and incapable of managing herself and her affairs.

This application is initiated by three of the children of the patient and is opposed by the respondent and five other children of hers. Pursuant to an application by summons-in-chambers, I granted an order giving liberty to the patient to intervene by her solicitors. Let me first set out some pertinent background.

There is no doubt a deep division within the respondent's family, with the three applicants on the one side and the respondent and the other five children on the other. The conflict appears to exist in 1974, if not earlier. The animosity between the two sides is so intense that on 16 June 1988 the first and second applicants placed a notice in The Straits Times renouncing the respondent as their father.

While it is not entirely clear why the dispute came to a head in 1985, it seems to concern the mother