The Philippines is not on India's list of declared "reciprocating territories" under Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, so a Philippine court judgment, including a divorce decree, generally requires a fresh civil suit under Section 13 of the CPC to be enforced in India.
Why the Philippines is not a reciprocating territory
India's commonly cited list of Section 44A CPC reciprocating territories includes the United Kingdom,
Singapore, Bangladesh, the UAE, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, the Cook Islands (including
Niue), Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Hong Kong, and Aden. The Philippines does not appear on this list. This
platform sourced the current list from secondary legal commentary rather than a primary Gazette
notification, so it should be verified against the current Ministry of Law and Justice Gazette
notification before relying on it for a specific case.
The Section 13 fresh-suit route for enforcing a Philippine judgment
Because the Philippines is not a reciprocating territory, a money decree or divorce decree from a
Philippine court cannot be directly executed in India under Section 44A. Instead, the judgment must be
relied upon as a cause of action in a fresh civil suit under Section 13 of the CPC, where an Indian court
will treat the foreign judgment as conclusive on the matters directly adjudicated, subject to the
exceptions listed in Section 13 itself (such as the foreign court lacking jurisdiction, the judgment not
being on the merits, or it being obtained by fraud).
A notable complication: the Philippines does not itself permit divorce for its own citizens
A distinctive wrinkle worth flagging for any family connected to the Philippines: the Philippines is
one of the few jurisdictions in the world that does not generally permit absolute divorce for its own
citizens (Muslim Filipinos and, separately, indigenous communities have their own distinct legal
frameworks). This does not affect an NRI who remains an Indian citizen -- Indian family law and Indian
courts govern their own marriage and divorce -- but it is worth confirming each family member's actual
citizenship status where a mixed Indian-Filipino family is involved, since it can affect which country's
law and courts actually apply.
Common mistakes NRIs and Indian-origin families connected to the Philippines make with this topic:
- Assuming a Philippine court judgment is automatically enforceable in India, without accounting for
the Philippines' absence from the Section 44A reciprocating-territories list.
- Not confirming each family member's actual citizenship status where the family includes both
Indian and Filipino nationals, given the Philippines' restrictive domestic divorce law.
- Not budgeting time and cost for the Section 13 fresh-suit process, which is slower than direct
execution would be.
