Enforcement of UAE Judgments in India

The UAE has treaties with several countries for judicial co-operation and the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments. These include Tunisia, the GCC countries, Algeria, France, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Armenia, China, Sudan and Pakistan.

On October 25, 1999, the UAE entered into such a treaty with the Republic of India, via the Agreement on Juridical and Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters for the Service of Summons, Judicial Documents, Judicial Commissions, Execution of Judgments and Arbitral Awards. Notwithstanding this treaty, parties had experienced difficulty in enforcing a UAE judgment in India due to the Central Government of India not issuing a notification pursuant to Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure of India (CPC). Section 44A (Execution of decrees passed by Courts in reciprocating territory) requires the Central Government of India to issue a notification in the Official Gazette declaring the UAE as a reciprocating territory.

According to a secondary source, a district court in one of the States in India recently dismissed a petition for the enforcement of a Dubai judgment on the grounds that the notification required under Section 44A of the CPC had not been made.

To remedy this problem, the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice, issued a notification in the Gazette of India on January 17, 2020 declaring the UAE to be a reciprocating territory for the purposes of Section 44A of the CPC. Following this notification, a judgment passed by a UAE court will be viewed as a judgment from a reciprocating territory, and will remove an obstacle in enforcing UAE judgments in India.

Contributed by Saurbh Kothari, senior associate and Sulakshana Senanayake, associate at Afridi & Angell