In Brief
In this civil appeal, the Supreme Court examined the validity of service of summons by newspaper publication where the summons failed to specify a particular date, time and year for the defendant's appearance. The plaintiff had obtained an ex-parte decree against the defendants after they did not appear in response to summons published in newspapers. The defendants sought to set aside the decree under Order IX Rule 13 of the CPC, arguing the summons was not properly served. The Court held that under Section 27 read with Appendix-B (Process IA) of the CPC, a summons must mention a specific day, date, year and time for appearance. Omitting this requirement renders the summons defective and bad in law. Therefore, the defendants succeeded in setting aside the ex-parte decree and the suit was restored for hearing on merits.
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