Execution and Getting Paid: Questions and Answers

File an execution petition. That's the step that turns a decree into money. The court can attach bank accounts, receivables and property, and in some cases it'll order the judgment debtor to disclose what he owns. Our execution of decree page walks you through it.

It won't. A decree is only a paper right until you enforce it, and the court isn't going to chase the judgment debtor for you. You have to file an execution application under Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and say exactly how you want to recover: attach a bank account, for instance, or sell a property. We've seen decree holders lose months waiting politely for a voluntary payment. It rarely comes. Once the time the decree allows for payment has run out, start execution. Our execution of decree page sets out the steps.

The format is in Order XXI Rule 11(2) of the CPC, and most people fill it in as a table. You'll give the suit number, the parties, the decree date, whether anyone appealed, any payment or adjustment since, the amount due with interest and costs, and the kind of help you want from the court. That last column is where petitions gain or lose months. Don't write 'attach all assets'. Name the bank and the branch. Give the property's address and registration details, or the employer's name. A vague petition gets a vague order.

The judgment alone won't do. You need the decree. The judgment carries the reasons; the decree sheet is the formal document saying what's payable, and that's what the executing court works from. Under Order XXI Rule 11(3) the court can ask for a certified copy, and most Delhi NCR courts expect one filed with the petition. One delay we see all the time: the decree sheet gets drawn up weeks after the judgment. Keep chasing the copying section. And before you file, check the amounts, the interest rate and the party names in the decree against the judgment.

Not straight away. Section 38 of the CPC says a decree is executed either by the court that passed it or by the court it's sent to for execution. And Section 39(4) stops the decree court from executing against a person or property outside its own territorial limits. So say the debtor's factory is in Ghaziabad and your decree came from Saket. You first ask the Saket court to transfer the decree to the Ghaziabad court. Then you file there. If assets sit in several places, execution can run in more than one court at once, as long as you disclose what you've recovered elsewhere.

Probably not. Article 136 of the Limitation Act, 1963 gives you 12 years from the date the decree becomes enforceable. Nine years is inside that. Two practical things follow, though. Because more than two years have gone by, the court will first send the judgment debtor a notice under Order XXI Rule 22 asking why execution shouldn't go ahead. And in nine years a debtor moves office, changes banks, sells things. So run fresh asset searches before anything else. Our limitation guide has more on time limits.

Each default starts its own clock. The decree date doesn't. Article 136 of the Limitation Act says that where a decree directs payment on a set date or at intervals, time runs from the default in the payment you're seeking to execute. Take a consent decree from a Noida commercial court that allows Rs 50 lakh in ten monthly instalments. Every missed instalment carries its own 12-year period. But read the decree for a default clause. Plenty of them say one missed instalment makes the whole balance payable at once, and if yours does, time for the entire balance may run from that first default.

You can, and you should. List every bank and branch you know of. The court can send each one a prohibitory order under Order XXI Rule 46, freezing the account up to the amount due, and later direct the bank to remit the money to court. In the execution files Advocate B.K. Singh handles, all the accounts go into the first petition together. Why? Because debtors tend to empty the rest the moment the first order lands. If you know the bank but not the branch, ask the court to direct the bank to search for accounts in the debtor's name and PAN.

Often, yes. Money a third party owes your judgment debtor is a debt, and debts can be attached under Order XXI Rule 46. Rules 46A to 46I then let the court send a garnishee notice to that third party, who has to pay the amount into court or explain why it owes nothing. Picture a Gurugram contractor holding a decree for Rs 30 lakh who knows the debtor has running bills with a large developer. A garnishee order can catch those payments before they reach the debtor. You'll need some proof the debt exists. Purchase orders or invoices usually do it.

Roughly a third of whatever's above Rs 1,000. Section 60(1)(i) of the CPC protects the first Rs 1,000 and two thirds of the remainder when an ordinary money decree is being executed. The employer deducts the attachable part and sends it to court under Order XXI Rule 48 or 48A. There's a time cap as well. Once salary has been under attachment for 24 months in total under the same decree, it becomes finally exempt for that decree. Provident fund balances have their own, separate protection. So salary attachment helps. It's just slow money.

It can, though it's the slowest route there is. First the court attaches the property by a prohibitory order under Order XXI Rule 54. Then it settles a sale proclamation and sells by public auction. Section 60 shields only limited things, like an agriculturist's residential house, so a business debtor's urban flat or office generally isn't exempt. Expect objections. Expect valuation fights and adjournments too. A contested property sale can take a year or more, so ask for a bank account attachment alongside it.

Sometimes. The bank holding the mortgage has first claim on that property, and Section 26E of the SARFAESI Act, 2002 gives registered secured creditors priority over other debts. Your attachment sits behind the mortgage. Still, if the property's worth more than the bank's dues, the surplus is there for you, and the attachment stops the debtor from quietly selling it. Find out how much of the loan is outstanding before you decide. If the bank has already started a SARFAESI sale, apply to claim the surplus from the sale proceeds.

Not as against you. Under Section 64 of the CPC, once property is attached, a private transfer or delivery of it is void against all claims enforceable under that attachment. The same goes for paying an attached debt to the debtor. Whoever buys takes the property with your attachment still on it. Even so, we'd send a copy of the attachment order to the sub-registrar and put proof of that on the court file. That way buyers have notice and you'll see fewer disputes. A buyer who handed money to the debtor must look to the debtor for it. Not to you.

They can. Shares are movable property. Under Order XXI Rule 46 the court sends a prohibitory order to the company and, for demat holdings, to the depository participant, and that blocks any transfer. Mutual fund units are attached by a similar order to the fund house or its registrar. Order XXI Rule 76 then lets the court direct a broker to sell the shares. Unlisted shares in the debtor's own private company are harder to sell. They're still attachable, though, and attaching them often brings a reluctant debtor to the table.

Yes. Under Order XXI Rule 43, movables in the debtor's possession are attached by physically seizing them, and the court can then order a sale. Cars, delivery vans, machinery, finished stock: that's what bailiffs usually go for. Section 60 keeps a few things out of reach, like necessary wearing apparel and an artisan's tools. Two warnings from practice. Anything on hire purchase or hypothecated to a bank brings the financier into court with an objection. And seized goods need a godown, often paid for by you as decree holder, so perishable stock is rarely worth the bother.

It can, and you should ask early. Under Order XXI Rule 41(2) of the CPC the executing court can require the judgment debtor, or an officer of a debtor company, to swear an affidavit disclosing assets. The Supreme Court in Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021) wanted executing courts to use these powers actively, so decrees don't just gather dust. Put the request in your very first application. Don't hold it back until other modes fail. A debtor who ignores the order can be sent to civil prison for up to three months under Rule 41(3). Our execution guide covers the full process.

Put the contradictions in front of the court, with documents. The debtor's bank statements, GST returns, vehicle registrations, property records and filings with the Registrar of Companies frequently show assets the affidavit conveniently forgot. Then ask for examination of the debtor on oath under Order XXI Rule 41(1), attachment of whatever was hidden, and action over the false affidavit, which counts as giving false evidence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. When Advocate B.K. Singh tests an affidavit of this kind, he goes first to papers the debtor produced earlier. The balance sheets filed in the suit are a good place to begin.

You can. When the judgment debtor is a company, Order XXI Rule 41(1) lets the court call any of its officers for oral examination about debts owed to the company, its property and how it could pay the decree. It's useful when the company swears it has nothing while its directors carry on the same business. Questions can go into bank accounts, receivables, stock, vehicles, and money recently shifted to group companies. The examination doesn't make the directors personally liable. But their answers often point you to assets you can attach.

Up to three months, if the decree is for more than Rs 5,000, and that's under Section 58 of the CPC. The court orders detention only after notice and an inquiry under Order XXI Rules 37 to 40 shows the debtor has the means and is refusing to pay, or is hiding or moving assets. You, as decree holder, must deposit a subsistence allowance for his upkeep. No deposit, no detention. Release doesn't wipe out the debt either. In practice, a well-supported arrest application often produces a payment proposal.

She can't be. Section 56 of the CPC simply doesn't allow a woman to be arrested or detained when a money decree is being executed. Her property, bank accounts and salary are still fair game for attachment. Bear in mind too that a decree against a company doesn't reach its directors personally, men or women. Personal enforcement against a director becomes a question only if she's herself a judgment debtor, for instance because she signed a guarantee and is named in the decree as guarantor.

The executing court holds an inquiry. Under Order XXI Rule 58, anyone who claims attached property can object, and the court decides that claim itself, title questions included, taking evidence if it needs to. What it's really asking is simple. Is this the debtor's flat, parked in his wife's name to keep it out of reach, or is it genuinely hers? Purchase money trails, loan EMIs, income tax returns and who actually lives there all count. The decision has the force of a decree and can be appealed. Our execution objections page covers these claims.

Not on the merits, no. The executing court has to take the decree as it stands. Section 47 of the CPC confines it to questions about executing, discharging or satisfying the decree, such as whether a particular payment really happened. Complaints that the goods were defective or the invoice was inflated come too late at this stage. They should have been argued in the suit or taken up in appeal. The one narrow opening is a decree that's a nullity, say because the court that passed it had no inherent jurisdiction. And the Supreme Court has told executing courts to be firm with frivolous objections, costs included.

Often you can. Order XXI Rule 50 of the CPC lets a decree against a firm be executed against the personal property of anyone who appeared in his own name as a partner, admitted in the pleadings that he's a partner, was held to be one, or was served individually as a partner and stayed away. For anyone else you say was a partner, you'll need the court's leave, and the court decides only after hearing him. That's why a suit against a firm should name and serve the partners from day one. A decree against an LLP or a company works differently.

No need. If the decree makes the company and the guarantor jointly and severally liable, you can execute against either one, or both, in whatever order suits you. Section 128 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 makes a guarantor's liability co-extensive with the principal debtor's, unless the contract says otherwise. Decree holders usually go first after whoever has reachable assets. A guarantor with a house and a salary is often a far easier target than a company with an empty account. Keep the court told about recoveries from each. Our business loan recovery page deals with guarantees.

Not automatically. A decree binds only the company named in it, and the new entity is a separate legal person. Courts will pierce the corporate veil if the new company is a sham created to dodge creditors. But you have to prove it. Look for the same address, staff, customers and shareholders. Look for assets or contracts that moved over soon after the suit was filed or the decree came. Depending on the facts, this can be argued in execution, or it may need its own suit, for example to set aside a fraudulent transfer under Section 53 of the Transfer of Property Act. Send Advocate B.K. Singh the company records through the contact page before filing anything.

The decree outlives him. You can execute it against his legal representatives, but only up to the value of whatever estate passed to them. That's Section 50 of the CPC. You apply to bring the heirs on record, and the court issues them notice under Order XXI Rule 22. Beyond what they inherited, the heirs owe nothing personally. So the real work becomes tracing what the deceased left: property, bank accounts, business interests. If he was a sole proprietor, the business assets form part of his estate and remain within your reach.

Ask the Delhi court to transfer the decree under Section 39 of the CPC. Order XXI Rule 6 then has it send the Bengaluru court a copy of the decree, a certificate of non-satisfaction (or of how far it's been satisfied) and a copy of any order for execution. After that you file the execution petition in Bengaluru. Under Section 42 that court has the same powers as the court that passed the decree. You'll need counsel on the ground there. The firm works with associate counsel in other states for exactly this. Local court details are on our Bengaluru page.

Yes, ask for a precept. Section 46 of the CPC lets the decree court, when you apply, issue a precept to whichever court has the property within its limits, telling it to attach. That attachment holds for two months. The decree court can extend it. It also carries on if, before it lapses, the decree itself is transferred there and you move for sale in that court. We'd use a precept whenever there's a real risk the debtor sells or mortgages the property while the formal transfer of the decree is still crawling through.

Only if the decree provides for it. Section 34 of the CPC lets the court award further interest from the date of the decree until payment. In a commercial transaction that rate can go above 6 percent a year, but it can't exceed the contract rate or, if there isn't one, the rate at which nationalised banks lend. If the decree says nothing about post-decree interest, Section 34(2) treats it as refused. The executing court can't add it later. So read the decree the day it arrives. An omission is fixed by appeal or review, not in execution. Our interest guide has more.

Interest and costs first, usually. Then principal. In Gurpreet Singh v. Union of India (2006) the Supreme Court held that unless the decree says otherwise, money paid towards a decree goes first to interest and costs and only then to the principal. That keeps interest running on the full principal for longer. A debtor can stop interest on a sum by depositing it in court and giving notice under Order XXI Rule 1, so watch out for deposit notices. After every payment, update a running statement of account.

You must. Order XXI Rule 2 of the CPC requires any payment or adjustment made out of court to be certified to the executing court, and that job falls on the decree holder. The debtor can also apply to have it recorded, within 30 days of paying. If a payment isn't certified, the executing court can't recognise it, and that's how fights about the balance start later. Where the settlement gives the debtor time, write the terms down, including what happens on default, and place them before the court. Our settlement page explains how to word such terms.

As a rule, no, not for the decree itself. Order XX Rule 11(2) of the CPC says that after a money decree is passed, the court can let the debtor pay in instalments only if you, the decree holder, consent. Without your yes, it's off the table. The executing court does have one lever: under Order XXI Rule 26 it can hold back execution for a reasonable period so the debtor can go to the appeal court, normally against security. If you're willing to accept instalments, get something back for it. Money upfront, a default clause, and freedom to execute the entire balance the moment a payment's missed.

There is. The Supreme Court in Rahul S. Shah (2021) said execution proceedings should be wrapped up within six months of filing, and any extra time needs reasons recorded in writing. It came back to this in Periyammal v. V. Rajamani (2025), warned that presiding officers would have to answer for delay, and has kept watch over how High Courts handle pending execution cases since then. So move an application flagging the delay and asking the court to fix a time-bound schedule. Look at the order sheet before you do. Notices that were never served, or an objection stuck in limbo, are often the real problem. You can fix those.

Usually you can. Dismissal of an execution petition for default doesn't wipe out the decree. You can apply to restore the petition, or file a fresh execution application, provided you're still inside the 12-year period. The fresh one should disclose the earlier petition and how it ended. Courts have said execution petitions shouldn't be withdrawn and refiled without valid reason, so don't treat this as a routine fix. Get the order sheet and see exactly why it was dismissed. If the reason's easy to explain, go for restoration.