Hong Kong Ordinances

BANKRUPTCY ORDINANCE - SECT 6D

Proceedings on creditor's petition

(1) The court shall not make a bankruptcy order on a creditor's petition
unless it is satisfied that the debt, or one of the debts, in respect of which
the petition was presented is either-

   (a)  a debt which, having been payable at the date of the petition or
        having since become payable, has been neither paid nor secured nor
        compounded for; or

   (b)  a debt which the debtor has no reasonable prospect of being able to
        pay when it falls due.

(2) In a case in which the petition contains such a statement as is required
by section 6C, the court shall not make a bankruptcy order until at least 3
weeks have elapsed since the service of any statutory demand under section 6A.

(3) The court may dismiss the petition if it is satisfied that the debtor is
able to pay all his debts or is satisfied-

   (a)  that the debtor has made an offer to secure or compound for a debt in
        respect of which the petition is presented;

   (b)  that the acceptance of that offer would have required the dismissal of
        the petition; and

   (c)  that the offer has been unreasonably refused, and, in determining for
        the purposes of this subsection whether the debtor is able to pay all
        his debts, the court shall take into account his contingent and
        prospective liabilities.

(4) In determining for the purposes of this section what constitutes a
reasonable prospect that a debtor will be able to pay a debt when it falls
due, it is to be assumed that the prospect given by the facts and other
matters known to the creditor at the time he entered into the transaction
resulting in the debt was a reasonable prospect.

(5) Nothing in sections 6 to 6C or this section prejudices the power of the
court, in accordance with the rules, to authorize a creditor's petition to be
amended by the omission of any creditor or debt and to be proceeded with as if
things done for the purposes of those sections had been done only by or in
relation to the remaining creditors or debts. <* Note - Exp. X-Ref.: Sections 6, 6A, 6B, 6C *> (Added 76 of 1996 s. 4)