Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in Bangladesh 2026: Executing a Domestic Award

Enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh: the 2026 position

Enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh is where a dispute is actually won or lost. A tribunal can rule decisively in your favour, but until the money is in your account, the property is handed over or the deed is registered, the award is only paper. For a domestic award, the Arbitration Act 2001 offers a short route: the award is treated as a decree of the court and executed under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908, with no fresh suit and no review of the merits.

The short route still has traps. The award cannot be executed until the sixty-day window for a challenge has closed or the challenge has failed. The execution case must be filed within limitation. Assets have to be identified and attached before they move, objections must be met, and awards against public bodies follow special rules. This guide explains how execution of a Bangladesh-seated award works in 2026, step by step, and what tends to slow it down in practice.

Summary: A domestic arbitral award in Bangladesh is enforced under section 44 of the Arbitration Act 2001 as if it were a decree of the District Court where the award was made and signed. Execution can begin once the sixty-day setting-aside window under section 42 has expired or a challenge has been refused, and it then runs under Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure: attachment and sale, bank account freezes, delivery of property and, in limited cases, arrest.

Key point: The sixty-day challenge period cannot be extended, and the High Court Division has held that the Limitation Act's power to condone delay does not rescue a late execution case either. Diarise both deadlines the day the award is received.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

Enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh under section 44

Section 44 of the Arbitration Act 2001 is the operative provision for awards made in arbitrations held in Bangladesh. Once the time for applying to set the award aside under section 42 has expired, or such an application has been made and refused, the award is enforced by the court under the Code of Civil Procedure in the same manner as if it were a decree of that court.[1] [5] There is no separate action on the award and no rehearing.

This is a real change from the Arbitration Act 1940, under which an award had to be filed in court and made a rule of court. The High Court Division confirmed in January 2024 that the 2001 Act has no filing requirement because the award is treated as a decree, so no limitation period for filing an award arises.[3] Section 39 adds that an award is final and binding on the parties and those claiming under them, which is why there is no appeal on the merits.[5]

Which court enforces a domestic award

The enforcing court is the District Court within whose local limits the award was finally made and signed.[5] [6] The Act defines "court" as the court of the District Judge, together with any Additional District Judge's court the Government notifies in the gazette to exercise functions under the Act.[1]

Where the judgment-debtor's assets lie in another district, sections 38 and 39 of the Code allow a decree to be executed by, or transferred for execution to, another court.[2] Plan transfers early, because they add weeks.

What section 44 does not do

Section 44 does not let the executing court question the award. The tribunal's findings of fact and law are not reopened in execution, and the debtor cannot use the execution case as a second chance to argue the merits. Challenges belong in a section 42 application within the statutory period. Execution objections are confined to matters that go to execution itself: satisfaction, the identity of the parties, the description of the property, or whether a particular asset is liable to attachment.

The section 42 window and when execution can start

Every enforcement strategy starts with the setting-aside window. A party may apply to set aside a domestic award within sixty days of receiving it. The application goes to the District Judge for a domestic arbitration and to the High Court Division for an international commercial arbitration held in Bangladesh.[5] For enforcement purposes, what matters is timing.

The sixty days are strict

In August 2025 the High Court Division set aside a District Judge's order that had condoned a 116-day delay and admitted a challenge to an award. The court held that the Arbitration Act 2001 is a self-contained code, that sections 5 and 18 of the Limitation Act 1908 do not apply, and that time runs from actual or deemed receipt of the award. Proper service counts as deemed receipt, and a bare denial of knowledge or an allegation of fraud does not stop the clock.[7]

For the award-holder this is good news. Once sixty days have passed from proper delivery of the award, the debtor's main line of attack is closed, and the award becomes executable. Keep clear evidence of delivery, such as a signed receipt or courier record.

When a challenge is pending

Section 44 is drafted around the challenge: execution follows expiry of the period or refusal of the application. In practice, a pending section 42 case therefore holds back execution, and executing courts have dismissed or paused execution cases while awards stood set aside at first instance. When the High Court Division later restores the award on appeal, the execution case is revived. In BASIC Bank v Business Resources, decided in November 2024, the District Judge set aside a domestic award and then halted the execution case; once the High Court Division affirmed the award, it held there was no bar to proceeding and directed execution to continue.[11]

The lesson is to treat the challenge and the execution as one campaign. Press for an early hearing of the section 42 case, seek a direction for disposal within a fixed period, and keep the execution file ready so that it moves the day the challenge ends.

Protecting the award during the window

The sixty-day gap is when assets are most likely to disappear. Section 7A of the Act allows the court to grant interim measures from before the arbitration until the award is enforced under section 44 or 45.[1] In December 2025, in Pubali Traders v Ministry of Food, the High Court Division confirmed that section 7A relief remains available after the award while a section 42 case is pending, and restrained encashment of a performance guarantee until that case was decided, directing the District Judge to dispose of it within six months.[8]

The same tool can be used by an award-holder to restrain disposal of identified assets pending enforcement. Our analysis of whether a performance guarantee can be stopped covers the guarantee angle in detail.

Documents and preparation for the execution case

Successful enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh is won in preparation. The application must be precise about who owes what and what the court is asked to do, and the decree-holder chooses the mode of execution. A vague application invites objections and adjournments.

The core file

• The award: the signed original or a certified copy, including any correction or interpretation issued under section 40, and the costs determination.
• Proof of receipt: evidence of the date each party received the award, to show that the section 42 period has expired.
• Challenge status: a certificate or certified order showing that no setting-aside application was filed, or that it was refused, together with any appellate order.
• The arbitration agreement and contract: to identify the parties and the obligations being enforced.
• A calculation statement: principal, pre-award and post-award interest, costs, and any part-payments, computed to the filing date.
• Asset schedules: bank accounts, land with mouza, dag and khatian details, buildings, vehicles, shares, receivables and other property proposed for attachment.
• Authority documents: board resolution or power of attorney, and for a foreign award-holder, notarised and legalised authority.

Asset intelligence before filing

The executing court will only attach what the decree-holder identifies. Before filing, run searches at the sub-registry and land offices for immovable property, the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies for shareholdings and charges, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority for vehicles, and trade records for receivables from known customers. A judgment-debtor that is a company often holds its most valuable assets in bank balances and receivables, which can be attached quickly if the accounts are named. Attachment follows legal ownership, so focus on assets in the debtor's own name.

Execution under Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure

Because a domestic award is executed as a decree, the full machinery of Part II and Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 is available.[2] The enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh therefore looks, from the court's perspective, much like the execution of any money or possession decree.

The execution application

The decree-holder files a written application for execution setting out the parties, the date of the award, payments already received, the amount due with interest, and the precise relief sought. For money awards, the application specifies whether execution is sought by attachment and sale of named property, attachment of debts, arrest and detention, or a combination. For non-money awards, it identifies the property to be delivered or the act to be performed. A decree for possession is only as good as its description of the property, so check the award's schedules before filing.

Notice and objections

Depending on the timing and nature of the application, the court may issue notice to the judgment-debtor to show cause why the decree should not be executed. The debtor may then raise objections, which the executing court decides. A debtor who instead files a fresh civil suit to stall execution is pursuing a route the High Court Division has closed: in December 2025 it rejected such a suit as barred and held that the debtor's objections belonged in the execution proceedings.[9]

Modes of execution

Part II of the Code gives the executing court its powers to enforce execution under section 51, including arrest and detention under section 55 and attachment and sale of property under section 60.[2] Delivery of specific property and other reliefs the award orders are executed through the same machinery, and the decree-holder can pursue several modes together. In practice, attachment of bank balances and immovable property are the main tools against companies, while arrest is used sparingly against individuals and is barred against women in execution of a money decree under section 56.[2]

Examining the debtor about assets

Where assets are hidden or unclear, Order XXI allows the executing court to have the judgment-debtor, or in the case of a company its officers, examined about the debts owed to it and the property it holds. This is an underused but effective tool: an officer who must answer on oath about assets faces real personal exposure, which often changes the debtor's approach to settlement.

Non-money awards

Awards in construction, real estate and joint venture disputes frequently order more than payment. In the BASIC Bank execution case, the award-holder sought recovery of money by sale of property and attachment of bank accounts, rental compensation, delivery of possession of agreed floor space and parking, registration of a sale deed on payment of the balance price, and civil imprisonment in default.[11] Each limb has to be framed as a distinct, executable direction, because the executing court can only enforce what the award actually orders.

The process follows a predictable sequence. The steps below reflect how TRW runs enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh for clients.

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Attachment in practice: accounts, land and exempt property

Attachment is the heart of any enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh. Its effect is to freeze the asset in the debtor's hands so that it can be applied to the award, and section 64 of the Code makes any private transfer of attached property void as against claims enforceable under the attachment.[2]

Bank accounts and receivables

Money held by banks for the debtor, and debts owed to it by third parties, are attached by prohibitory order directing the garnishee not to pay the debtor. In LEADS Corporation v Khan Akhter Alam, decided in June 2024, the executing court attached the judgment-debtor's accounts across twelve schedules with balances transferred to the decree-holder, attached and auctioned proprietary software, and ordered the auction of a commercial tower. The High Court Division dismissed the debtor's appeal, holding that the rules mandated the executing court to proceed to auction of both movable and immovable property.[12]

Immovable property and secured creditors

Land and buildings are attached by a prohibitory order restraining transfer or charge. The order must be properly made, proclaimed and recorded, and it must be internally coherent: in February 2025 the High Court Division set aside an attachment order that granted the debtor time to answer a show-cause notice while attaching its properties the same day without stating how long the attachment would last, and directed disposal of the execution case within ninety days.[4]

Where the property is already mortgaged, the auction proceeds first discharge the prior charge, and only the balance goes to the award-holder, as the High Court Division accepted for the mortgaged tower in the LEADS case.[12] Always check the encumbrance position before treating land as recovery.

Property that cannot be attached

Section 60 of the Code makes lands, houses and other buildings, and any other saleable property belonging to the debtor or over which it has disposing power for its own benefit, liable to attachment and sale, even where held in another's name. It then lists exemptions, including necessary clothing and bedding, tools of artisans, account books, a bare right to sue for damages, government pensions and gratuities, the wages of labourers and domestic servants, part of a salary, military pay and certain provident fund deposits.[2] Against individuals, these exemptions define what is realistically recoverable.[2]

Third-party claims

Expect a related company, a family member or a bank to claim that an attached asset is theirs, and the executing court to investigate that claim before the asset is sold. Document the debtor's title before attachment with deeds, mutation records and audited accounts.

Time limits for enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh

Two sets of deadlines govern every award: the debtor's sixty days to challenge, and the award-holder's period to execute. Missing the second is fatal.

The limitation period for execution

Section 55 of the 2001 Act applies the Limitation Act 1908 to arbitration.[1] In February 2026, in Jess Smith & Sons Cotton v Patriot Spinning Mills, the High Court Division held that an execution case on an arbitral award fell under article 182 of the Limitation Act, requiring the application within three years. The award-holder had filed about nine years after the award, a delay of 3,155 days.[10]

The court went further. It held that section 5 of the Limitation Act, which allows late filings to be admitted for sufficient cause, does not apply to execution proceedings unless a statute expressly provides for it, and that reliance on mistaken legal advice was in any event no excuse.[10] The case concerned a foreign award, but the reasoning on limitation applies with equal force to a domestic award executed as a decree. The safe course is to file the execution case well within three years of the award becoming enforceable, and in practice within weeks of the section 42 period closing.

Deadlines at a glance

The table below collects the time limits that matter most when executing a domestic award. On a phone, scroll it sideways.

Two practical points follow. Time for execution may be argued to run from the date of the award rather than from expiry of the challenge period, so do not plan on the later date. And once an execution case is filed, keep it alive.

Interest, costs and the amount to execute

The amount recoverable in execution is the sum the award orders, plus interest and costs as the award and the Act provide. Section 38(6)(a) allows the tribunal, unless the parties agree otherwise, to award interest at a reasonable rate for all or part of the period from the cause of action to the date of the award. Under section 38(6)(b), unless the award directs otherwise, the award carries interest at two per cent above the rate determined by Bangladesh Bank.[5] That post-award interest runs from the date of the award to payment.[6]

Interest is also a point of attack. In Sinha Power v Bangladesh Power Development Board, decided in December 2024, the High Court Division upheld the setting aside of an award and treated its fifteen per cent interest rate and sixty-day payment deadline as perverse, noting that the award did not state the bank rate it applied.[13] Award-holders should ask the tribunal to state the basis and rate of interest clearly, and in execution should file a transparent calculation that the court can verify. Costs fixed by the tribunal under section 38(7) are executed in the same way as the principal sum.[5]

Enforcing against the Government and state-owned entities

Enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh against public bodies deserves separate treatment, because many high-value domestic awards are against them: power boards, utilities, development authorities and ministries. The law here is favourable in principle and slow in practice.

No immunity defence at enforcement

The Arbitration Act 2001 contains no provision allowing the state or a state entity to raise sovereign immunity at the enforcement stage.[5] A statutory corporation with separate legal personality is a judgment-debtor like any other, and its commercial bank accounts and revenue-generating assets are exposed to attachment. In December 2025, in NEPC Consortium Power v Bangladesh Power Development Board, the High Court Division rejected the power board's civil suit challenging an award, vacated a stay of the execution case and directed the District Judge, Dhaka to proceed with execution.[9]

Section 82 for decrees against the Government

Where the award-debtor is the Government itself, or a public officer for an act done in an official capacity, section 82 of the Code applies. The court must specify a time within which the decree is to be satisfied; if it is not, the court reports the case for the Government's orders, and execution cannot issue until the decree has remained unsatisfied for three months from that report.[2] Because a domestic award is executed as a decree, expect the Government to rely on this protection, and build the extra months into the recovery plan.

Getting paid by a public body

Public debtors rarely pay without a budget allocation, and the practical route to payment is often administrative as well as judicial. Serve the executable award with a formal demand on the entity, its line ministry and the Finance Division; keep the execution case moving so that the pressure of attachment remains real; and, where the debtor is a commercial state enterprise, identify its operating accounts. Our guide to unpaid infrastructure project claims in Bangladesh covers the parallel administrative steps.

Practical obstacles and how to overcome them

Bangladesh's execution courts carry heavy caseloads, and a determined debtor can exploit every procedural step. One international guide estimates that recognition and enforcement of an award takes around twelve to twenty-four months.[6] The following obstacles to enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh account for most of that time.

• Collateral civil suits: debtors sometimes sue in the civil courts to declare the award void and then seek a stay of execution under Order XXI, rule 29. The High Court Division has held such suits barred because the Arbitration Act 2001 is a special law, and has refused to sustain stays founded on them.[9] Apply promptly to reject the plaint and vacate any stay.
• Late or repeated objections: objections on matters that should have been raised under section 42 should be met with the finality of the award under section 39 and the strict sixty-day rule.[7]
• Interlocutory stays from higher courts: revisions and appeals can carry interim stays for months. Ask the High Court Division for a direction that the execution case be disposed of within a fixed period; the court regularly gives such directions.[4] [11]
• Asset flight: transfers to relatives or affiliates before attachment are the most common problem. Use section 7A interim relief during the challenge window and attach quickly once execution opens.[8]
• Prior charges: heavily mortgaged land may yield little after secured creditors are paid. Target accounts and receivables first.[12]
• Insolvency: where a corporate debtor is insolvent, a winding-up petition may be more effective than execution. See our guide to winding up a company in Bangladesh.

Many debtors settle once attachment bites. A negotiated payment plan, recorded in court and backed by the continuing execution case, is often the fastest route to cash. A formal legal notice setting out the amount due, the execution steps planned and a short deadline frequently opens that discussion.

Appeals, revisions and the High Court Division

Section 48 of the Act provides for appeals against orders of a District Judge or Additional District Judge that set aside or refuse to set aside an award under section 42, or refuse to enforce a domestic award under section 44.[5] If the executing court wrongly refuses enforcement, the award-holder's remedy is a statutory appeal to the High Court Division. Interlocutory orders in the execution case, such as an attachment order or a stay, are usually challenged by civil revision.

The High Court Division's recent record supports award-holders. It has restored execution cases after reversing set-aside orders, rejected collateral suits and vacated stays, and upheld attachment and auction orders against corporate debtors.[9] [11] [12] For very large awards, factor in a possible further layer at the Appellate Division.

Foreign awards and setting aside: where they fit

This guide concerns awards from arbitrations seated in Bangladesh. A foreign award follows a different path under sections 45 to 47: it is enforced by execution through the District Court in Dhaka, on production of the award, the arbitration agreement and proof that the award is foreign, and the debtor's objections are made under section 46.[5] TRW's companion guide on foreign arbitral award enforcement covers that route and the New York Convention in full.

The grounds and procedure for challenging a domestic award under sections 42 and 43 are covered in our separate guide on setting aside arbitral awards. For the wider statutory picture, see our overview of alternative dispute resolution in Bangladesh and our analysis of arbitration agreement enforceability, which explains how the clause itself shapes later enforcement.

What to watch in 2026

Two developments matter for enforcement of arbitral award in Bangladesh this year. First, the specialised commercial courts introduced in 2026 are being set up to hear commercial disputes on tighter timetables. At a UNDP and Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre seminar in May 2026, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman called the Commercial Courts Act a good start, urged further amendments and stronger arbitration, and panels discussed reform of the Arbitration Act 2001.[14] Check whether a given arbitration-related application now falls within a commercial court's jurisdiction before filing.

Second, the High Court Division's decisions of 2025 and 2026 on strict time limits, collateral suits and interim relief have made the enforcement landscape more predictable.[7] [8] [10] They cut both ways: award-holders gain finality, but a late execution filing is now as fatal as a late challenge.

When an award is issued, the first weeks decide recovery: proving receipt, protecting assets, preparing the execution file and fixing the limitation date. TRW's commercial arbitration practice and dispute resolution team act for award-holders and debtors in execution cases across Bangladesh. To discuss an award, contact TRW.

Frequently asked questions

How is a domestic arbitral award enforced in Bangladesh?

Under section 44 of the Arbitration Act 2001, once the setting-aside period has expired or a challenge has been refused, the award is enforced under the Code of Civil Procedure as if it were a decree of the District Court where it was made and signed.[5]

Do I need to file a suit on the award before executing it?

No. The award is treated as a decree by statute, so the award-holder files an execution case directly under Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure.[2] [5]

When can I start execution?

After the sixty-day period for a setting-aside application under section 42 has expired with no challenge, or after a challenge has been refused.[5]

Can the debtor get more time to challenge the award?

No. The High Court Division held in 2025 that the sixty-day period cannot be extended and that sections 5 and 18 of the Limitation Act do not apply.[7]

How long do I have to file the execution case?

The High Court Division has applied the three-year period in article 182 of the Limitation Act to execution of an arbitral award and refused to condone delay. File promptly after the award becomes enforceable.[10]

Can bank accounts be frozen in execution?

Yes. Executing courts attach bank balances by prohibitory order and can direct transfer of the funds to the decree-holder, as the High Court Division upheld in 2024.[12]

What interest can I recover?

Whatever the award orders. Unless the award directs otherwise, it carries interest at two per cent above the Bangladesh Bank rate from the date of the award to payment.[5] [6]

Can a government body claim immunity from enforcement?

The Act contains no sovereign immunity defence at enforcement, but where the debtor is the Government, section 82 of the Code requires a time for satisfaction and a three-month wait after the court's report before execution issues.[2] [5]

Can the debtor stop execution by filing a civil suit?

Generally not. The High Court Division has held that a civil suit challenging an award is barred under the Arbitration Act 2001 and that a stay of execution pending such a suit cannot be sustained.[9]

What if the executing court refuses to enforce the award?

Section 48 of the Act allows an appeal against an order refusing to enforce a domestic award under section 44.[5]