Dear sir
The notices seems to have been sent by registered post. In case the said registered posts were not served then the same will be returned to the sender. Thus if your advocate or your self is the sender and if you have got the un served envelops then please return the same to the court. You have options of serving the summons as follows:
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The Different Modes of Effecting Service of Summons on a Defendant (C.P.C 1908, India)
The prescribed modes of service of summons are as follows:
- Personal or Direct Service:
Wherever it is practicable, service should be made on the defendant in person, unless he has an agent empowered to accept service in which case service on such agent shall be sufficient. Where there are two or more defendants, service should be made on each defendant. (O. 5, rr. 10, 11).
Where the defendant is absent from his residence at the time when the service of summons is sought to be effected on him at his residence and there is no likelihood of his being found at the residence within a reasonable time and he has no agent empowered to accept service of the summons on his behalf, service may be made on any adult member or his family, whether male or female, but not a servant. [O. 5, R. 15].
In a suit for immovable property service may be made on any agent in charge of the property if the service cannot be made on the defendant personally and the defendant has no agent empowered to accept the service.
Such personal service is also called direct service because service is made by delivering a copy thereof to the defendant personally, or to an agent or other person on his behalf, and the signature of the person to whom the copy is so delivered is obtained to an acknowledgment of service endorsed on the original summons.
2. Service by affixing a copy of summons on defendant’s house without an order of the court:
(a) Where the defendant or his agent or in their absence an adult member of the family refuses to sign the acknowledgment, or
(b) where the serving officer, after using due diligence, cannot find the defendant who is absent from his residence at the time when service is sought to be effected on him at his residence and within a reasonable time and there is no such other person on whom service can be effected, the serving officer shall affix a copy of the summons on the outer door or some other conspicuous part of the house in which the defendant ordinarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain, and then shall return the original to the court from which it was issued, with a report endorsed thereon stating that he has so affixed the copy, the circumstances under which he did so, and the name and address of the person (if any) by whom the house was identified and in whose presence the copy was affixed. If the court is satisfied it declares the service to have been duly effected. (O. 5, R. 17).
3. Service by registered post in addition to personal service:
The court shall, in addition to, and simultaneously with the issue of summons for service also direct the summons to be served by registered post, acknowledgment due, addressed to the defendant, or his agent empowered to accept the service, at the place where the defendant, or his agent, actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain. The court, however, shall not issue a summons for service by registered post, where, in the circumstances of the case, it considers it unnecessary.
When an acknowledgment purporting to be signed by the defendant or his agent is received by the court, or the postal article containing the summons is received back by the court with an endorsement purporting to have been made by a postal employee to the effect that the defendant or his agent had refused to take delivery of the postal article containing the summons, when tendered to him, the court Issuing the summons shall declare that the summons had been duly served on the defendant: provided that where the summons was properly addressed, prepaid and duly sent by registered post, acknowledgment due, the declaration referred to in this sub-rule shall be made notwithstanding the fact that the acknowledgment having been lost or mislaid, or for any other reason, has not been received by the court within thirty days from the date of the issue of the summons. (O. 5, R. 19-A).