Section 52: Sending a closed case file to the Ministry of Justice
Statutory text (Thai original)
เมื่อคำพิพากษาหรือคำสั่งอันเป็นเด็ดขาดถึงที่สุดแล้วเรื่องใดได้มีการปฏิบัติตาม หรือบังคับไปแล้ว หรือระยะเวลาที่กำหนดไว้เพื่อการบังคับนั้นได้ล่วงพ้นไปแล้ว ให้ศาลที่เก็บสำนวนนั้นไว้ จัดส่งสำนวนนั้นไปยังกระทรวงยุติธรรม เพื่อเก็บรักษาไว้หรือจัดการตามกฎกระทรวงว่าด้วยการนั้น
English translation
Where a judgment or order that has become final and conclusive in any matter has been complied with or enforced, or where the period fixed for its enforcement has expired, the court holding the case file shall send that file to the Ministry of Justice, to be kept or dealt with in accordance with the ministerial regulations on the subject.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 52 is an archiving provision closing the Title on court files. It is triggered by one of two events: actual compliance with or enforcement of a final judgment or order, or expiry of the period fixed for enforcement. Once either occurs the court no longer retains the file; custody passes to the Ministry of Justice. The practical consequence is that a file is not held indefinitely at the trial court, so an application to inspect or copy documents under Section 54 should be made while the file is still with the court. Read with Section 53, which deals with loss or damage of documents in a file still under trial or awaiting enforcement, the two provisions cover the file's fate before and after the case ends.
Why this matters in practice
This matters when a client needs a document from an old case. Once the file has gone to the Ministry of Justice, obtaining a copy is slower and is governed by the ministerial regulations rather than by a simple application to the trial court. Where enforcement is still possible, or a copy of anything in the file may be needed, obtain certified copies under Section 54 before the file is transferred. Note also that the ten year period for enforcing a judgment under Section 274 runs independently of this Section, so transfer of the file does not extinguish enforcement rights.
Cited in 3 Supreme Court decisions (1975 to 1991)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 336/2534 (1991)
- Decision 3083/2522 (1979)
- Decision 1000/2518 (1975)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What happens to my case file after the case ends?
Under section 52, once the judgment or order is final and has been complied with or enforced, or the enforcement period has lapsed, the court transmits the case file to the Ministry of Justice, which keeps or handles it under a ministerial regulation.
Can I still get copies of documents from a closed case?
Yes, but because the file is archived with the Ministry of Justice after the case closes, it is usually faster to obtain certified copies of the judgment and key documents before the file leaves the court.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil Procedure Code, s. 52 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 52. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-52/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.พ. มาตรา 52 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-52/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-52/"><p>Where a judgment or order that has become final and conclusive in any matter has been complied with or enforced, or where the period fixed for its enforcement has expired, the court holding the case file shall send that file to the Ministry of Justice,…</p><footer>Civil Procedure Code, s. 52 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-52/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.