Report No. 140

2.2. Service by registered post.-

Service by registered post as a permissible mode of service of summons came to be inserted initially by local amendments in Order V of the Code. In 1956 (Order V, rule 20A), such service was permitted by a Central Act, which amended the Code. But it was not made mandatory. Refusal to accept service by registered post did not (even under the 1956 amendment), lead to a mandatory declaration by the court, of the service being sufficient.

It was in 1976 that the law, while directing service of summons by registered post, along with the issue of summons for personal service, also directed the court to declare the service by registered post as sufficient service, inter alia, where the "postal article" (i.e., the envelope containing the summons), came back to the court with an endorsement of refusal.