Execution of foreign decrees may proceed before the Debts Recovery Tribunal where special statute confers overriding, exclusive jurisdiction.

The legal fiction in Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure was treated as extending to the consequences necessary to make a foreign decree executable in India, so its execution could proceed before the Debts Recovery Tribunal rather than only in a civil court. The Tribunal's exclusive jurisdiction under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, together with its overriding effect and procedural powers, supported this forum change. The Tribunal could also entertain the defences available under the applicable procedural framework. The execution was therefore upheld before the Tribunal, and the challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether execution of a foreign decree under Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 could be transferred to the Debts Recovery Tribunal under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993, and whether the Tribunal could entertain the same defences as would be available before a civil court.

Analysis: The legal fiction in Section 44A was construed according to its purpose, namely, to treat a foreign decree as executable in India as though it were a decree of a district court. That fiction was not treated as confined so narrowly as to prevent execution before the Debts Recovery Tribunal, because the Tribunal had exclusive jurisdiction under Section 17 and the Act gave it overriding effect under Section 34. The Tribunal's procedural power under Section 22 was also read as enabling it to exercise CPC powers and to entertain defences available under Section 13. The distinction between execution in a district court and execution before the Tribunal was held to be only a change of forum.

Conclusion: The transfer of execution to the Debts Recovery Tribunal was upheld, and the appellant's challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The orders refusing to retain the execution proceedings in the High Court were sustained, and the appeals were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A legal fiction in Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 extends to the consequences necessary to give effect to execution, and when a special statute confers exclusive jurisdiction with overriding effect, execution may proceed before the designated tribunal with the procedural defences available under the general law.

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