Property Attached in Execution of Decrees of Several Courts
When the same property is seized under decrees of several different courts, Section 63 prevents a tug-of-war by naming a single court to take charge — and it protects the steps the other courts have already lawfully taken.
How to read Section 63
Attachment under § 51(b) can be ordered independently by more than one court. If two or three of them attach the very same property, who administers it? Section 63 answers in three moves.
Two or more courts have each attached the same property — property not yet in any court’s custody. Whose hands take it?
One court is chosen to receive & realize the property and decide all claims and objections: the Court of highest grade, or — if grades are equal — the court whose decree attached it first.
Choosing that court does not undo valid steps already taken by the others (2) — except a set-off order to a decree-holder who bought the property (the 1976 Explanation).
The bare Act
(1) Where property not in the custody of any Court is under attachment in execution of decrees of more Courts than one, the Court which shall receive or realize such property and shall determine any claim thereto and any objection to the attachment thereof shall be the Court of highest grade, or, where there is no difference in grade between such Courts, the Court under whose decree the property was first attached.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to invalidate any proceeding taken by a Court executing one of such decrees.
1. Explanation ins. by Act 104 of 1976, s. 24 (w.e.f. 1-2-1977). The single 1976 insertion narrows sub-section (2): a court’s order giving a purchasing decree-holder a set-off of the purchase price is not a saved “proceeding”. Apart from this one insertion, § 63 stands as in the original 1908 Code.
Key terms decoded
Goods/assets under attachment but still lying outside court custody — not yet physically received or paid into any court. (If it were already in one court’s custody, that court would simply deal with it.)
Legally frozen for execution — the debtor can no longer deal with it, and it stands earmarked to satisfy a decree.
The same property has been attached in execution of separate decrees passed by two or more different courts — the conflict the section resolves.
To take the property into custody (“receive”) and convert it into money by sale (“realize”) for distribution.
Decide disputes over ownership of the property — e.g. a stranger claiming it is his, not the debtor’s.
Decide challenges to the validity of the attachment itself — that the property was wrongly or excessively attached.
Of the competing courts, the one higher in the judicial hierarchy (e.g. District Court above a Court of a Subordinate Judge / Munsif). The senior court takes charge.
Where the competing courts are of equal rank, grade cannot decide — so a fallback test is needed.
The tie-breaker: among equal-grade courts, the one under whose decree the property was attached earliest in time administers it.
A step already lawfully taken by one of the executing courts (e.g. issuing a sale proclamation) — preserved by sub-section (2), but read narrowly per the Explanation.
To render legally void. Sub-section (2) says picking the administering court does not void what the other courts had validly done.
An adjustment by which a decree-holder who buys the property at the execution sale is allowed to deduct the purchase price he owes against the decree owed to him — instead of paying cash.
The amount the decree-holder-purchaser must pay for the property bought — the sum the “set off” would have wiped out.
The court-conducted auction of the attached property to realize money for the decree.
The picture — many attachments, one administering court
Many courts may attach one property; Section 63 funnels its future to a single administering court, while sub-section (2) preserves the past lawful acts of the others — bar the one set-off order the 1976 Explanation excludes.
Section 63, part by part
Two sub-sections and a 1976 Explanation. Switch tabs to walk through the operative phrases of each.
How the parts work as one body
Connected provisions
Section 63 decides which court administers property attached under several decrees; § 73 then governs how the realized proceeds are shared among the decree-holders.