Court's direction on mandatory disclosure of judgment-debtor's assets, incomes, and expenditures to expedite execution proceedings.

JUDGMENT (Oral)

1. This Court laid down the guidelines for execution of the decrees/awards vide judgment dated 05th December, 2019, hereinafter referred to as Bhandari Engineers-I.

2. Vide judgment dated 05th August, 2020, hereinafter referred to as Bhandari Engineers-II, this Court modified the guidelines issued in Bhandari Engineers-I to make them more comprehensive.

3. Mr. Dayan Krishnan, Senior Advocate assisting this Court as Amicus Curiae seeks the following modifications in the guidelines issued in Bhandari Engineers-II:

(i) If the execution is filed within two years of the decree/award and the decree-holder has disclosed the assets of the judgment-debtor, the Court shall attach the assets on the very first date of hearing.

(ii) If the decree-holder is not aware of the assets of the judgment-debtor, the Court shall direct the judgment-debtor to deposit the amount within 30 days.

(iii) If the decretal/awarded amount is not deposited by the judgmentdebtor, the judgment-debtor be directed to file the affidavit/additional affidavit of its assets and income within 30 days of the receipt of notice.

(iv) If the amount is deposited by the judgment-debtor within 30 days, the judgment-debtor is not required to file the affidavit/additional affidavit of its assets.

(v) If the judgment-debtor is a Central Government/State Government/Municipal Corporation/PSU/Entity of the Central/State Government/Foreign State, the direction to file the affidavit of assets within 30 days is not necessary in the first instance. In such cases, the Court shall direct the judgment-debtor to disclose the particulars of its bank account(s) in which there is sufficient amount to satisfy the decree/award, on affidavit within 30 days. If the amount in the bank account(s) is not sufficient to satisfy the decree/award, the judgment-debtor be then directed to file the affidavit of its assets in Form 16A of Appendix E under Order XXI Rule 41(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure.

(vi) If the execution is filed after two years of the decree/award, notice be issued to the judgment-debtor and the directions relating to the affidavit of assets, attachment and injunction be considered after the service of the judgment-debtor unless the decree-holder makes out a case under Order XXI Rule 22 of the Code of Civil Procedure, at the time of issuance of notice.

(vii) The formats of the notices to be issued to the judgment-debtor be prescribed in this judgment for the convenience of the Courts.

(viii) The show cause notice is necessary for detaining the judgment-debtor upon the failure to deposit the decretal/award amount or to file the affidavit of assets.

4. Mr. Sanjiv Kakra, learned Amicus Curiae and Mr. S. S. Jauhar, lear