RANGI LAL Vs. LAXMI NARAIN GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RANGI Lal, applicant in this revision under Section 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, is the tenant of a shop of which Laxmi Narain Gupta and Udai Narain Gupta, opposite parties are landlords. A suit filed by the landlords for the ejectment of Rangi Lal on the ground of default in payment of rent was decreed on May 30, 1981. On August 10, 1981 an application under Order 9, Rule 13 CPC for setting aside the ex parte decree on the ground that summons were not duly served upon him was moved by Rangi Lal. This application having been dismissed on the ground that Rangi Lal was served by the summons on March 12, 1981 through his son Jagdish Chandra so that the application had been filed beyond the prescribed period of limitation and was, thus, not maintainable; Rangi Lal has approached this Court in the present revision.

(2.) THE case of the landlords, as given out in the counter-affidavit of Udai Narain, was that Jagdish Chandra, son of Rangi Lal resided within him and it is upon him that the summons of the original suit were served on March 12, 1981 as was apparent from the report of the process server on the counter-foil of the summons in the original suit. The summons were thus duly served. Besides, Rangi Lal was aware of the pendency of the suit and his case that he learnt about the decree for the first time on August 7, 1981 was incorrect.

(3.) PAPER No. 10-C is the counter-foil of the summons. On its back, is an endorsement of having received the summons and the copy accompanying it, said to have been made by Jagdish Chandra for Rangi Lal, his father. Below it, is a report of the process-server in Hindi in the following terms :