Foreign Judgement – Enforceable before Court in India – Civil Procedure Code, section 13(b)

A foreign Court which has jurisdiction over the subject matter and passes a decree, the same is conclusive u/s. 13 of the CPC. The plea of the defendant that judgement was obtained by playing fraud hence could not be conclusive could not be considered as it had not submitted to the jurisdiction of the competent Court in a foreign country. The defendant would not be allowed to raise up his hands after the plaintiff has gone through the process of trial and undertaken the execution by applying to the executing Court to retry the issue.

The plaintiff had filed his plaint. The defendant was given notice of the action. He was served a summon. He was called upon to answer the plaintiff’s claim. The trial Court was bound to hear the defendant and to dismiss the plaintiffs claim if it was fraudulent or perjurial. It was, therefore, not only the defendant’s right to get the action of the plaintiff dismissed if it was perjurial or fraudulent, but also its duty to bring perjurial act constituting fraud to the notice of the Court if it was known to the defendant at the time of the trial. If that was not done at the time of trial then and was sought to be done later after the judgment was passed, it would constitute a retrial issue. That retrial is forbidden by the salutary principle of resjudicata. If permitted, it would allow all defendants not to defend the claim and allow any decree to be passed which would then be challenged whilst being executed. That would be an abuse of the Court process.