Execution of a foreign judgment:
Foreign judgments may be enforced by suit. They may also be enforced by proceeding in execution in certain specified cases which are mentioned in Section 44-A.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
That section provides that where a certified copy of a decree of any of the superior courts of the United Kingdom or any reciprocating territory has been filed in a district court, the decree may be executed in India as if it has been passed by the district court on the filing of a certified copy of the decree together with a certificate from such superior court stating the extent, if any, to which the decree has been satisfied or adjusted, which certificate shall be conclusive proof of the extent of satisfaction or adjustment.
Only in such cases a foreign judgment can be enforced by proceeding in execution. Section 44-A is intended to be part of a reciprocal arrangement under which, on the one hand, decrees of Indian courts should be executable in the United Kingdom and any other reciprocating territory and on the other decrees of courts in the United Kingdom and other notified areas should be executable in India.
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Reciprocity of treatment between nations is the real basis, and the obligation arises from international dealings, otherwise a foreign judgment can only be enforced by a suit upon the judgment and a regular suit has to be brought for the relief which has been granted by the foreign judgment.
Decrees of courts in Pakistan:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Pakistan has not been declared to be a reciprocating territory within the meaning of Section 44-A of the Code and as such decrees passed after the 14th of August, 1947, by the courts in Pakistan cannot be executed by courts in India.
Even in a case where a decree was passed before the 15th August, 1947, by a court which subsequently is situated in Pakistan and was transferred for execution to the Court of Small Causes at Calcutta, the Calcutta High Court held that the Court of Small Causes at Calcutta had no jurisdiction to entertain the application for execution.
From after the 15th August, 1947, the court which passed the decree under execution became in relation to that court a ‘foreign court’ and the judgment, on the basis of which the decree was passed, a foreign judgment.
Accordingly the requirements of Section 13 had to be complied with, unless the judgment was by a court situate within the territories of a reciprocating country as under Section 44-A of the Code. (Dominion of India v. Hircdal Bathra, 35 C.W.N. 817).
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Period of limitation:
The period of limitation for filing a suit on a foreign judgment is six years from the date of the judgment. [Art. 101 of the Indian Limitation Act, Act No. 35 of 1963].