decree-holder
Section 2(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 defines a decree-holder as any person in whose favour a decree has been passed or an order capable of execution has been made. The person need not have been the plaintiff: a defendant who obtains a decree (for example, for costs or a set-off) is also a decree-holder.
The opposite party is the judgment-debtor (s.2(10)). A decree-holder applies for execution under Order XXI; a transferee of the decree may also execute it under Order XXI Rule 16. Execution must ordinarily be sought within twelve years of the decree becoming enforceable (Article 136, Limitation Act, 1963).
Example
Having obtained a money decree, the decree-holder filed an execution petition seeking attachment of the judgment-debtor's salary.
In Indian law
- Sections 2(3) and 2(10), Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
- Order XXI, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908: execution of decrees
See also
Read more in the study notes
- Introduction to the CPC: procedural law, history and key definitions (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Foreign judgments (sections 13 and 14) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Execution: general principles, the executing court and transfer of decrees (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Modes of execution: arrest and detention, attachment, and sale (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Interim orders: commissions, arrest and attachment before judgment, temporary injunctions and receivers (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Computation of limitation: exclusion of time, fraud, acknowledgment, part-payment and continuing wrongs (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)