Goodbye Postal Rule denovo Dimensions of Service of Summons in Civil Suits in Sri Lanka through technological frontiers

Abstract

Serving of summons could be treated as the most crucial elementary step of the life cycle of a civil suit in Sri Lanka. The Civil Procedure Code of Sri Lanka, which is at its 136 years of age, encountered a significant shift forward, particularly with the advent of Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act No 43 of 2024. In the spirit of the said Amendment, service of summons through electronic mail is allowed in Civil litigation in Sri Lanka from 2nd August 2024, if the Plaintiff wishes to resort to that technological step, subject to the production of all necessary documents to the relevant Court in the electronic form. The said Amendment has significantly altered the format of a proxy which was encapsulated in the 1st schedule of the Civil Procedure Code since its original enactment. Moreover, the applicability of postal rule heavily relied upon by the litigants in the Island to prove the service of summons, for a prolonged period will be inclined towards an obsolete stage, with the revolutionary provisions introduced for the Civil Procedure Code. In the above backdrop, this Article critically evaluates the significant changes made on the service of summons in Sri Lanka and whether the messaging applications popularly used by the public domain could be utilized to constitute a valid service of summons in the future. This paper is enriched with the judicial wisdom envisaged from neighboring India on the scope of the instant study and proposing reforms of the subject matter.