On 17 January 2020, The Ministry of Law and Justice passed a notification, declaring the UAE to be a reciprocating territory, as per section 44A of the Indian Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (read with Order XXI of the CPC). As per the provision, if any certified copy of a judgement by a superior court of any reciprocating territory, is filed before a district court in India, is executable in India. It will be considered equal to the judgement passed in India by a local district court.
Section 44A makes it clear that the judgement must be passed by a superior court of a reciprocating territory. A reciprocating territory can be any territory or country outside India, which can be declared as a reciprocating territory by the Central Government (as per CPC).
The judgement must be filled in a district court in India and no other court and must be executed in India as if, the judgement was passed by the Indian district court itself. Section 44A provides the right to a foreign decree-holder for enforcement of its decree in India.
A person in whose favour the judgement is made, seeking enforcement of that judgement of a reciprocating country, is required to file an execution proceeding in India. But a judgement passed by a non-reciprocating country, a fresh suit or claim must be filed before the relevant court in India, based on the foreign judgement or the original cause of action or both.
India and UAE entered into a contract on 25th October 1999, to strengthen their friendship and promote cooperation in legal and judicial matters. Both the countries shall recognize and execute decrees passed by the Courts of the other Contracting country in civil, commercial and personal matters and by criminal courts if the laws of the requested country allow it. This contract was entered into by both the countries to enable the execution of judgements, in one’s own country, that have been delivered, by the other country. The contract was signed, when a few judgement executions (from UAE courts) were filed and challenged in Indian courts due to lack of section 44 of CPC.
UAE has been declared as a reciprocating territory in India and certain federal courts and local courts of the UAE are termed as superior courts in the light of delivering the judgements, which can be enforced by the district courts in India.
The following UAE courts have been identified as ‘Superior Courts’:
Federal Court:
Federal Supreme Court;
Federal, First Instance and Appeals Courts in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi
Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah.
Local Courts:
Abu Dhabi Judicial Department;
Dubai Courts;
Ras Al Khaimah Judicial Department;
Courts of Abu Dhabi Global Markets; and
Courts of Dubai International Financial Center.
Foreign judgements can be enforced in India except for the matters described in section 13 of CPC. The foreign judgement will be not enforceable in India if it fails to comply with section 13 of CPC.
Section 13 of CPC provides that a foreign judgement can be said incomplete if the judgement has :
Not been pronounced by a court of competent jurisdiction
Obtained without any merits of the case
Is not recognized by Indian law
Violates principle of natural justice
Been obtained by fraud
Breaches any law in force at the time
If the judgement covers any of the above factors, such judgement will not be enforced in India. Even though UAE has been declared as a reciprocating territory, the recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment via UAE Courts can be opposed on any of the grounds listed in Section 13 of the CPC, but the meaning of the grounds laid out in this section shall be subject to interpretation.
In the case of R. Viswanathan vs. Rukn-Ul-Mulk Syed Abdul Wajid (1 1963 SCR (3) 22), it has been described that while considering whether a judgment or decision of a foreign Court is competent, the courts in India will not inquire or consider whether conclusions recorded thereby are supported by the evidence, or are otherwise correct, because the binding character and nature of the judgment may be displaced only and only, by establishing that the case falls within one or more of the six clauses of section 13, and not otherwise.
In Kevin George Vaz vs Cotton Textiles Exports (2006 (5) Bom CR 555), the term “reciprocating territory” was extensively defined to mean any country or territory outside India. For the record, the United Kingdom has been a reciprocating territory with India under the provisions contained in Section 44 (1) of the Indian Civil Procedures Code, 1908 (as amended). Hong Kong (which was a colony and British dependent territory of the United Kingdom) was restored to the People’s Republic of China in the year 1997.
Other than UAE, the other countries that have already been declared as reciprocating territories are the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, the Cook Islands and the Trust Territories of Western Samoa, Honk Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Aden.
