INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Vijayendra Pratap Singh, Asif Ahmed, Tanmay Sharma and Bhanu Jindal, AZB & Partners
investigation, arrest and production of accused persons in India. Some expropriatory statutes, such as the PMLA, also allow attachment of property of equal value in India in cases where properties forming pro - ceeds of crime are taken or held outside India. 4.2 Service of Proceedings out of the Jurisdiction The BNSS is the principal Indian legislation which provides for administration of substan - tive criminal procedure, including the issuance of summons by a court (or a police officer through the court) for the production of any document or material necessary for the purposes of any investigation, inquiry or trial. Summons in such cases can be issued to any person who the court believes to be in possession of such information. The BNSS provides for an elaborate process for the valid service of summons or warrants, etc, in any contracting “state” , through an authority for transmission. As stated in 4.1 Joining Overseas Parties to Fraud Claims , India has entered into MLATs with various countries/contracting states. India is a member state to various multilateral treaties that provide for mutual assistance in enforcement. These include membership of the FATF and International Criminal Police Organiza - tion (Interpol), which enable member states to share and access data on crimes and criminals as well as offer a range of technical and opera - tional support. Similarly, India has also entered into various bilateral treaties that allow knowl- edge-sharing, mutual assistance and extradition for enabling investigation, arrest and production of accused persons in India. The request for service of such judicial docu - ments to an entity/person outside India is pro - cessed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The MHA examines the request upon receipt to ensure that it is compliant with the provisions of any bilateral or multilateral treaty or any other international convention to which both India and the receiving country are signatories. It also examines the summons request to verify com - pliance with Indian law and the laws of the for - eign recipient country. The request is then sent through the Ministry of External Affairs to the “Central Authority” of the reciprocating country. In the country to which a request for assistance is made, summons are served in accordance with the laws and procedures of that country. Where a decree has been obtained by a peti - tioner based on a claim of fraud in contractual disputes, such a decree may be executed either by the court which passed it or by the court to which it is sent for execution. Order XXI of the CPC provides a detailed procedure for execut - ing a decree in an Indian court. Courts have held that all execution petitions must be disposed of within six months of their filing, failing which an executing court must record the reasons for delay. A decree obtained from a foreign jurisdiction may also be enforced in an Indian court pro - vided it passes the test of finality as laid down in Section 13 of the CPC. Section 44A of the CPC provides that a decree of any superior court of a reciprocating territory is executable in India as a decree passed by an Indian district court. If the decree is passed by a non-reciprocating territo - ry, the procedure under Indian law is to institute a civil suit seeking recognition and, thereafter, enforcement of the foreign decree. Similarly, a 5. Enforcement 5.1 Methods of Enforcement Civil Proceedings
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