Summons:

A summons is a written notice served on a person under the authority of the court to appear
personally before the court. Summons in Civil Procedure Code, is served on the defendants and
witnesses. Defendants are summoned to intimate the suit filed against them. Whereas as the
witnesses are summoned to demand evidence or to produce documents or both. This concept of
summon came from the principle of audi alteram partem which means to hear both sides. When a
summon is served then only the defendant becomes aware about the proceedings against him.
Under order 16 summons are sent to the witnesses and. Without summons, the parties cannot
enforce the presence of witnesses and establish their case.

ESSENTIALS OF A SUMMON:

As per Order 5 Rule 1, the basic necessity in any summons is the sign of the Judge and seal
of the court issuing the summons. With respect to the summons to a witness, Rule 5 of
Order 16 states that particulars such as date and time at which the witness is required to
attend are to be specified. Also, in the summon it should be mentioned the reason why a
witness has been called, like if a witness has been called for producing any document, the
name and description of the document required should also be mentioned in the summons.

WHO CANNOT BE SUMMONED:

ACC to rule 19 of the order 16 there are some people who cannot be summoned by the court, the
court cannot serve summons to persons who are residing outside the original jurisdiction of the
court but The rule is exempted if such a person’s residence is situated less than fifty miles from the
courthouse and even in the case where the person’s residence is situated less than two hundred
miles from the courthouse where there is an availability of public transport.

Persons holding constitutional positions from personal appearance in the court. So, they
cannot be summoned by the court either under section 133.
MODE OF SERVICE OF SUMMONS:
Summons to a witness can be served in different ways as it is served to a defendant under
Order 5. Summons can be delivered personally to the person or his authorised agent. If the
person cannot be found in his residence for a reasonable time, the summons can be delivered
to any adult family member residing with the witness. The court can serve the summons
through its court officer or by registered post acknowledgement due. This shall be the most
preferred method as there is a proof of acknowledgement slip and there can be no false report
of service of summons. If the person consciously avoids the summons and cannot be reached
by any means, the court officer can affix the summon on the door or the other conspicuous
part of the house where the person resides or on the place where the person carries business.
Rule 10 of the CPC provides that summon must be served by delivering a copy of the original
summoning document prepared by the judge to the defendant sealed with the court’s seal and
signature. There are many ways of service of summons under the CPC that have been
recognized by the courts. These are:

1. Service by hand: : This is the oldest and still preferable mode of service of
 summons. The plaintiff or the court officer, depending on the order of the
judge, carries a copy of the actual summon and delivers it to the defendant.
This method was the oldest mode when post and electronic means were
absent and delivery by hand was the only option.
2) Service by post: Post: A summon can be delivered to the summoned person by
sending it through the post. Posting of summons replaced the delivery by hand
because it was convenient and maximum summons could be served in the same
without compromising with the time of the court. A summon must be sent through
registered post such as India Post. The post office allows the sender to track the
summon and the tracking receipt is required to be produced before the court to
prove that the summon was served successfully.

3) service by email: With the development of technology, first the summons were sent
through post and by hand, but now , the courts have been inclined to use electronic
means to serve summons and notices to save time and money. In the case of Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission v. National Hydroelectric Power Corp. Ltd., the
apex court allowed the service of a notice through email but ordered

that a copy should also be sent through post. in KSL Industries v. State of
Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court made a significant remark and held that there
is a lot of delays caused in legal proceedings due to unserved summons. Therefore,
all practical means should be used to avoid this delay and hence, e-mail can be used
to serve summons.

4) services through WhatsApp: The landmark case in this regard, however, is Ruma Pal v.
Kumar. In this case, the defendant husband had fled to Australia to avoid any suit filed by
his wife for domestic violence and it was very difficult to serve summons while he was in
Australia. Justice Surabhi Sharma of the Delhi High Court allowed the plaintiff to serve the
summons through WhatsApp and also held that double tick on WhatsApp shall be the
conclusive proof of the receipt of the summons.
So these were some methods a court
and a planitff send summons to the defendants.
SUMMONS OUTISDE COURTS JURISDICTION: usually a court cant
summon a person who is residing outside courts jurisdiction, but in , Order 5
Rule 21 provides that the court may issue the summons to a court having jurisdiction over
the person’s residence through its officer or by other means such as post or electronic mail
service. Wherein Section 28 in service of summons outside the State states that the
summons has to be sent to a court with jurisdiction in the other State and it has to be in
accordance with the rules in the transferee State. Such a court can serve the summon and a
translation can also be made accordingly.

Summons in civil cases: Order V of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (hereinafter, CPC)
deals with the procedure of service of summons on the defendants and respondents in a
civil suit while Order XVI of the Code deals with the procedure of service of summons on
the witnesses in the proceeding. Rule 1 Rule 1 states that when the plaintiff has filed the
plaint and the plaint has been admitted by the court, the court should issue a summon
calling the defendant to answer the claims of the plaintiff, Rules 11 to 15 explain service
of summons when there are more than one defendants. According to these rules,
summon should be served to each of the defendants individually and in person as far as
practicable, . Rule 13 and 14 provide that a summon can be served to the agent of the
defendant or any representative in his place of work and that shall complete proper
service of summons3..

WHAT IS THE PUROPSE OF ISSUE OF SUMOONS:

The concept of issuing of summons became very helpful to the courts and to the both
partieds as well, lets says that if there were no summons then it would be very easy for
the defendant to not attend the procedings and the reason of not knowing about . In
any civil procedure, summonses are issued to two categories of people: the defendant
who is being sued and the witnesses who must be called to decide the case. The motive
of serving a summons on a defendant is to provide him the opportunity to explain his
case and respond to the plaintiff's claims, as well as to file a written statement within the
statutory time limit. On the other hand, summons are served to the witnesses because
the witnesses may refuse to be present in the court on the request of the parties and
deny the knowledge of such hearing. Therefore, summon is issued to ensure that the
witness knows about the proceedings and can testify for the same.

Since the CPC provides for the issue of summons, cases can be disposed of as soon as
possible. If the summoned person appears on the date ushered, the case continues
without adjournment and moreover, the court is empowered to pass an ex-parte decree,
i.e. award in favour of the party who is present in the court if the other party does not
appear even after receiving the summons.