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Delhi HC Frames Formats of Assets and Income for Disclosure of Judgment Debtor's Financial Capacity
Delhi HC has modified the formats of affidavits formulated by the Court itself in the judgment dated 5th December 2019 in order to make them more comprehensive. The Delhi HC is of the view that the decree holders who have already succeeded in the litigation are not able to enjoy the fruits of his success due to delay in the execution of its decree. Due to unreasonable delay by the judgment debtor public lose confidence and trust in the justice delivery system.
The Court suggested the Central Government mandate the filing of an affidavit of assets, liabilities, income, and expenditure by the judgment debtor at the very threshold of execution proceedings to ascertain the financial means of the judgment debtor.
As per the order XXI Rule 41(2) of Code of Civil Procedure, a judgment debtor is required to disclose his assets in execution proceedings, which is not exhaustive to ascertain all the assets and income of the judgment debtor. It is a major flaw that leads to delay in the execution of the proceedings.
Hence, the Court, in the exercise of its powers under Section 30 and 151 and Order XXI Rule 41 of the CPC read with Sections 106 and 165 of the Indian Evidence Act and Article 227 of the Constitution of India, has formulated the formats of the affidavit of assets, income, expenditure, and liabilities to be mandatorily filled by the judgment-debtor in execution cases. This will give a complete overview of the standard of living of the judgment debtor.
The Court also reiterated that these affidavits are only to be treated as guidelines for the Court to determine the financial capacity of the judgment debtor and if required the Court can also direct judgment debtor to make more disclosures.
If a decree-holder has invoked Section 304 CrPC against a judgment debtor for making a false case before the Court, the Court should prosecute the judgment debtor under the said Section if it is a prima facie offense under Section 209 of IPC.
Some major guidelines laid down by HC for executing Courts to utilize their powers under different provisions:-
The Court has invited further suggestions on its guidelines by counsel/litigants and has listed the matter for 6th November 2020 for consideration. The Court has also directed the subordinate courts to send it a list of all pending execution proceedings which are more than one year old by 31st December 2020.
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