You go back to the commission that passed the order and file an execution application, and you file a second application under Section 72 in the same breath. The order you hold is not a request. Two things to do this week: obtain a certified copy of the order and note the date on it, and start finding out where the company keeps its money, because execution against an identified bank account is a matter of months and execution against nothing is a matter of years.
What are the two tools, and why use both?
Section 71 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provides that every order made by a District, State or National Commission shall be enforced by it in the same manner as if it were a decree made by a court in a suit before it, and that the provisions of Order XXI of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 apply as far as may be, reading references to the decree as references to the order. That is the civil tool. It reaches assets.
Section 72(1) provides that whoever fails to comply with an order of a commission shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than one month, which may extend to three years, or with fine of not less than twenty-five thousand rupees, which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both. Section 72(2) gives the commission the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class for trying that offence, notwithstanding the Code of Criminal Procedure, and Section 73 provides an appeal against a Section 72 order, on facts and law, from the District Commission to the State Commission, within the period that section prescribes. That is the penal tool. It reaches the people who run the company. The Consumer Protection (Consumer Commission Procedure) Regulations, 2020 name the first an Execution Application, E.A., and give appeals in execution their own head, A.E., so the registry knows exactly what you are filing.
An attachment finds money if you know where it is. A show-cause notice under Section 72 with the words one month to three years in it finds a director who suddenly knows where it is. In practice the second application is what produces the cheque, and the first is what you fall back on if it does not.
What can the commission actually attach?
Whatever a civil court could. Section 51 of the Code lists the modes: delivery of property, attachment and sale, arrest and detention subject to the proviso that a money decree is not enforced by detention unless the debtor has means and refuses or has dishonestly dealt with his property, appointment of a receiver, and any other manner the relief requires. Section 60 lists what is attachable, and it names money, bank notes, cheques, debts, shares and all other saleable property of the judgment-debtor, subject to the exemptions the section then sets out. Order XXI Rule 11(2) requires the execution application to be in writing, in tabular form, stating the decree, whether an appeal has been preferred, the amount due with interest, and the mode of assistance you want from the court. Get that last column right, because the registry processes what you ask for and nothing else.
| Asset | Provision | How it works | What you need first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank account | Order XXI Rules 46 and 46A | A written order prohibiting the bank from paying the debtor, then a garnishee notice calling on the bank to pay the amount into the commission | The bank and branch, from an invoice, a cheque, the company's own website or its filings |
| Receivables from customers | Order XXI Rules 46 and 46A | The same garnishee route against a customer who owes the debtor money | The identity of the customer and the debt |
| Stock, vehicles, machinery | Order XXI Rule 43 | Actual seizure by the attaching officer, then sale | The premises and a description of the goods |
| Office or land | Order XXI Rule 54 | A prohibitory order against transfer, registered against the property, then proclamation and sale | The property particulars from the registration record |
| The people in charge | Section 72, Consumer Protection Act, 2019 | Show-cause, trial by the commission as a first-class magistrate, imprisonment or fine | Proof of service of the order and of the default |
Our note on executing a decree and actually recovering money goes through each mode, the Section 60 exemptions and the arrest provisions in detail, and everything in it applies here through Section 71.
They have appealed. Can I still execute?
Yes, unless a stay has been granted. Section 41 gives a person aggrieved by a District Commission order forty-five days to appeal to the State Commission, and its second proviso says no appeal by a person required to pay any amount under the order shall be entertained unless the appellant has deposited fifty per cent of that amount in the prescribed manner. That deposit is a condition of the appeal being heard. It is not a stay, and an unstayed order is an enforceable order. File the execution application anyway, tell the State Commission in the appeal that you have done so, and ask for the deposited amount to be released to you against security. The appeal answer covers what to do in the first two weeks of an appeal and how far the appeal ladder actually goes.
How long does this take?
Indicatively, and it depends on the commission's docket and on whether you have found an asset. Notice on the execution application and the Section 72 show-cause typically issues within a few weeks of filing, and the first effective hearing follows some weeks after service. A garnishee order against an identified bank account can be obtained and complied with within a few months of that. Attachment and sale of immovable property is a matter of a year or more, because proclamation, objections and auction each take their turn. A Section 72 proceeding that reaches the stage of a director facing conviction very often ends in payment before it gets there. Plan for six months to a year against a company with a bank account you can name, and longer against one whose assets you have not yet found.
- Obtain the certified copy and check the date, the amount, the interest clause and the time allowed for compliance.
- Identify the company's legal name, CIN and registered office from the public record, and its bank from any document you hold.
- Prepare the tabular execution application under Order XXI Rule 11(2) with the interest computation, naming the mode of execution you want.
- File the Section 72 application with proof of service of the order and an affidavit of non-payment.
- Press for the garnishee order first, then the show-cause, and record every adjournment the debtor takes.
What I tell clients at the order stage is to spend an hour on the debtor's assets before spending a rupee on execution. The registered office, the bank named on an old invoice, the vehicles in the company's name, and the GST registration that tells you where it trades from, are all public or already in your file. An execution application that names a branch and an account is a different document from one that asks the commission to find the money, and the commission will not find it for you.