Portugal is not on India's list of declared "reciprocating territories" under Section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, so a Portuguese court judgment, including a divorce decree, generally requires a fresh civil suit under Section 13 of the CPC to be enforced in India -- notwithstanding that Portugal, unlike several other countries this platform covers, generally permits its own nationals to hold dual citizenship.
Why Portugal is not a reciprocating territory
India's currently gazetted 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. Portugal is absent from this list,
consistent with every other EU country this platform covers, including France, Italy, Spain, the
Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, and Sweden. 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 Portuguese judgment
Because Portugal is not a reciprocating territory, a money decree or divorce decree from a Portuguese
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).
Cross-border custody, dual citizenship, and EU family-law overlap
Because Portugal generally permits dual citizenship for its own nationals, a meaningful share of
Portugal's Indian-origin community -- particularly the Goan-descent group discussed in this platform's
Immigration guide for Portugal -- may hold both Indian and Portuguese nationality. A cross-border custody
or divorce-enforcement dispute connected to Portugal can therefore also implicate EU family-law
instruments, such as the Brussels II ter Regulation governing jurisdiction and recognition of matrimonial
and parental-responsibility matters across EU member states, in addition to Indian and Portuguese law --
particularly where family members or assets are spread across Portugal and other EU states. Anyone facing
such a dispute should confirm which country's courts actually have jurisdiction with counsel qualified in
the specific EU jurisdiction involved, rather than assuming Portuguese and Indian law are the only
relevant frameworks.
Common mistakes NRIs and Portugal-connected families make with this topic:
- Assuming a Portuguese divorce decree is automatically enforceable in India, without accounting
for Portugal's absence from the Section 44A reciprocating-territories list.
- Assuming that Portugal's general willingness to permit dual citizenship changes the Section 44A
analysis -- it does not; the two are separate legal questions.
- Overlooking that a family member's EU nationality or EU residence may bring EU family-law
instruments into a cross-border dispute alongside Portuguese and Indian law.
