How to Execute a Foreign Decree or Judgment in India (2026)

How-To Guide · Foreign Decrees

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

A decree or judgment from a foreign court does not enforce itself in India. You have to bring it before an Indian court first. There are two routes, and which one you use depends on the country that passed the decree. If it came from a court in a notified reciprocating territory, you can file it almost like an Indian decree under Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure. If it came from anywhere else, you must file a fresh suit on the foreign judgment. This guide explains both routes, the defences the other side can raise under Section 13, the limitation trap that defeats many holders, and how to follow the case once it is filed. Last verified October 2026.

01What enforcing a foreign decree means

You won a case abroad and the foreign court passed a decree, usually ordering someone to pay you money. That person, or their assets, is now in India. The foreign decree cannot be enforced here on its own. You have to get an Indian court to recognise it and then recover under it. For the basic idea of what a decree is, see what a decree means.

Indian law gives you two routes. The quick route under Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, treats a decree from certain countries almost like an Indian decree, so you can execute it straight away. The longer route is to file a fresh suit in India on the foreign judgment. Which one applies depends entirely on where the decree came from.

02Route 1: reciprocating territories (Section 44A)

Section 44A is the fast track. It says that where a decree of a superior court of a reciprocating territory is filed in a District Court in India, it may be executed as if it had been passed by that District Court itself. No fresh suit is needed.

A reciprocating territory is a country that the Central Government has notified as such, and the superior courts are the ones named in that notification. The United Kingdom, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and several other countries have been notified, but the list is specific, so you must check the current notification for the exact country and the exact courts named.

To use this route you file a certified copy of the decree, together with a certificate from the foreign superior court stating how much of the decree has been satisfied, if any. The Indian court can still refuse execution if the decree falls within one of the Section 13 exceptions explained below.

03Route 2: a fresh suit (Section 13)

If the decree comes from a country that is not a notified reciprocating territory, you cannot execute it directly. You have to file a fresh suit in an Indian court, and the foreign judgment becomes the main piece of evidence in that suit.

Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure says a foreign judgment is conclusive between the same parties on the matter it decided, unless it falls within one of six exceptions. So in the fresh suit you ask the Indian court to pass its own decree based on the foreign judgment, and the other side can resist only by showing that one of those six exceptions applies.

This route is slower because it is a full suit, with pleadings and evidence, but the foreign judgment does most of the heavy lifting. Section 14 also helps you: an Indian court presumes that a foreign judgment was passed by a court of competent jurisdiction, unless the contrary is shown.

04The Section 13 defences

Whether you use Section 44A or a fresh suit, the other side can attack the foreign judgment on the same grounds. A foreign judgment is not conclusive under Section 13 if:

• it was not passed by a court of competent jurisdiction;
• it was not given on the merits of the case;
• it is founded on an incorrect view of international law or a refusal to recognise Indian law where that applied;
• the proceedings were opposed to natural justice, for example the party was not heard;
• it was obtained by fraud; or
• it sustains a claim founded on a breach of a law in force in India.

These are the real battlegrounds. A debtor who did not appear abroad will often argue want of jurisdiction or denial of natural justice. If none of the six exceptions is made out, the Indian court must treat the foreign judgment as conclusive.

05The limitation trap

This is where many decree holders lose. For a decree from a reciprocating territory, the Supreme Court in Bank of Baroda v Kotak Mahindra Bank (2020) held that the period of limitation is governed by the law of the country that passed the decree, not by Indian law. Once the decree becomes time-barred in the country of origin, it can no longer be executed in India.

For a fresh suit on a foreign judgment, the Indian limitation period for the suit applies. Either way, the safe course is to move quickly after you get the foreign decree.

06Documents and where to file

For the Section 44A route, you need a certified copy of the foreign decree and a certificate from the foreign superior court showing what part of the decree, if any, has been satisfied. You file these in the District Court that has jurisdiction, usually where the assets or the person are.

For the fresh-suit route, you plead the foreign judgment, attach a certified or authenticated copy, and prove it like any other document. A high-value commercial dispute may fall before a commercial court; see commercial courts in India. The mechanics of an execution petition are the same as for a domestic decree once the matter is admitted; see how to file an execution petition.

Get the papers settled by an advocate who handles cross-border enforcement, because a defect in the certified copy or the certificate can hold up the whole matter.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Enforcing a foreign decree turns on how Indian courts have read Section 44A, the Section 13 exceptions, and the limitation rule from the Bank of Baroda case. Claw lets you search 30 crore+ judgments, with Supreme Court decisions from 1950 and High Court decisions from 1990, to find rulings on reciprocating territories, want of jurisdiction, natural justice, and the cause-country limitation point, in under 5 seconds. Once the execution or the fresh suit is filed, Claw tracks cases, orders and hearings across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, so you can follow the matter by party name without checking cause lists by hand. Claw does not use your case documents to train its AI models.

Create a FREE Claw account to find foreign-decree enforcement rulings on point and track the matter once filed, using case search across Indian courts. For the execution petition itself, see the execution petition format.

08Sources and further reading

• India Code (Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Sections 13, 14 and 44A): indiacode.nic.in
• Supreme Court of India (Bank of Baroda v Kotak Mahindra Bank): main.sci.gov.in
• eCourts (case status of district courts): ecourts.gov.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This guide is general information, not legal advice. The list of reciprocating territories and the limitation position can change, so check the current law and take advice from an advocate before you act.

09Frequently asked questions