Insolvency practitioners in Singapore hold a formidable investigative tool. Section 335 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) lets the court compel not only a bankrupt but any third party who may hold relevant information, including family members, to appear for examination and to produce documents about the bankrupt's affairs, dealings and property. The power is deliberately broad and inquisitorial. But it is not unlimited. Singapore courts filter examination applications through a structured two-stage test, treat oral examination as more intrusive than document production, and recognise substantive limits, oppression, disproportion, privilege and the spectre of the "fishing expedition". This article sets out the statutory framework, the controlling test, and the realistic grounds on which a respondent can resist or narrow an examination.
The Statutory Power
Section 335 confers wide powers to summon and examine. Its key provisions read:
"335.—(1) Where a bankruptcy order has been made, the Court may, upon an application made by the Official Assignee at any time (whether before or after the discharge of the bankrupt), or upon an application made by a creditor (who has tendered a proof) at any time before the discharge of the bankrupt — (a) summon the bankrupt to appear before it ... and examine the bankrupt as to the bankrupt's affairs, dealings and property; and (b) summon any other person to appear before the Court ... and examine the person, if it appears to the Court that the person would be able to give information concerning the bankrupt or the bankrupt's affairs, dealings or property. ... (3) Without prejudice to subsection (2), the Court may at any time require any person mentioned in subsection (1)(b) to submit an affidavit to the Court containing an account of the person's dealings with the bankrupt or to produce any documents in the person's possession or under the person's control relating to the bankrupt or the bankrupt's affairs, dealings or property."
Three features stand out. The class of persons who may be summoned under section 335(1)(b) is "any other person", not merely those in a fiduciary or contractual relationship with the bankrupt; the only threshold is that it appears to the court the person can give relevant information. A relative of the bankrupt, such as a parent, plainly falls within that scope where they may hold relevant information. And section 335(3) operates without prejudice to subsection (2), allowing the court to require an affidavit account or the production of documents without necessarily ordering an oral examination. Applications may be brought by the Official Assignee at any time, before or after discharge, or by a creditor who has tendered a proof, but only before discharge. These points were confirmed in the leading recent authority, Jane Rebecca Ong v Lim Lie Hoa [2023] SGHC 33.