Hyderabad, May 11 -- A man who allegedly siphoned company funds into his personal account in Sharjah and then returned to India cannot escape a United Arab Emirates (UAE) court order against him simply because it was passed in his absence, the Telangana High Court has ruled.

The court held that a money decree passed by the Federal Court of Sharjah is fully enforceable in India, and that an Indian judgment debtor cannot use the excuse that he "was not present" in the foreign court to wriggle out of paying up.

The case

The dispute goes back to a business partnership in Sharjah involving a company that traded in medical equipment. The person who filed the case (decree holder) initially owned 90 per cent of the company, with the other part...