Indian courts’ judgments enforceable on registration

Imagine the scenario, an Indian business is trading with a UK-based supplier that has not supplied the required goods. The Indian business wants to recover the money it has paid to the supplier and may seek damages for breach of contract.

If the contract between the parties is subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian courts, that would be the appropriate forum for the business to sue for the debt. However, even if judgment is in the business’s favour, recovery of the debt may not be straightforward if the supplier’s assets are located abroad. A judgment is of little value if a creditor is unable to enforce it.

Where a judgment debtor’s assets are located in the UK, and moral pressure is not sufficient to recover the debt, the judgment creditor may seek to enforce the judgment in the English courts. Under the reciprocal enforcement regime between India and the UK, enforcement of an Indian court’s judgment is governed by the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 (FJA), with the procedure for doing so set out in Part 74 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). Ultimately, if an Indian judgment is registered in the High Court of England and Wales, it can be treated as if it was a judgment of that court.

This legislation is clearly beneficial to creditors looking to enforce Indian judgments in England and Wales. However, care needs to be taken to ensure that the application for registration of the Indian judgment is made correctly.

Paul Gair is an associate and Edward Wells is a solicitor at TLT LLP.