← All Case Highlights

Marduman-e- Mullazai v. Abdul Sadiq & others,

MLD 2011 1541 · Balochistan High Court

This case is about how long a person has to apply for execution (enforcement) of a court decree, once it has been won.

A civil suit filed by the petitioners had been dismissed by the trial court, but on appeal the District Judge, Pishin overturned that decision and granted a decree in the petitioners' favor on 19-3-2003. The petitioners then filed their first application to execute (enforce) this decree on 16-6-2006, which was about three years and three months later. The opposing side argued this was too late, since the law generally allows only three years to file such an application. The petitioners countered that Section 48 of the Civil Procedure Code allows six years for executing decrees, so their application should be considered valid.

Both the trial court and the appellate court had rejected the execution application as time-barred, and the matter reached the Balochistan High Court by way of revision.

The High Court held that Section 48 CPC's six-year period only applies to "fresh" applications, meaning any application filed after an earlier execution application already exists. Since this was the very first execution application ever filed, it was governed by Article 181 of the Limitation Act, which sets a three-year limit. Because the application was filed after three years and three months, it was correctly dismissed as time-barred. The court relied on earlier Supreme Court rulings settling this exact question, and dismissed the revision petition, upholding the lower courts' decisions.

Read the full judgment →