Why Thailand 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. Thailand 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 Thai judgment
Because Thailand is not a reciprocating territory, a money decree or divorce decree from a Thai 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 involving Thailand's large, long-settled Indian community
Because Thailand's Indian community is large and long-settled -- more than 100,000 people per the
Embassy of India, Bangkok, spanning multiple generations in some families -- a cross-border custody or
divorce-enforcement dispute connected to Thailand can involve a mix of Indian-citizen, Thai-citizen, and
dual-heritage family members. Since Thailand permits dual citizenship for its own nationals while India
does not, it is worth confirming each family member's actual current citizenship status at the outset of
any dispute, since this can affect which country's courts have jurisdiction and how a judgment ultimately
needs to be enforced.
Common mistakes NRIs and Indian-origin families connected to Thailand make with this topic:
- Assuming a Thai divorce decree is automatically enforceable in India, without accounting for
Thailand's absence from the Section 44A reciprocating-territories list.
- Not confirming each family member's actual citizenship status where the family includes both
Indian and Thai nationals.
- Not budgeting time and cost for the Section 13 fresh-suit process, which is slower than direct
execution would be.
