CPC 1908 § Order V, Rule 17 — Procedure when defendant refuses to accept service, or cannot be found

Statutory text (English)

Where the
defendant or his agent or such other person as aforesaid refuses to sign the acknowledgment, or where
the serving officer, after using all due and reasonable diligence, cannot find the defendant, and there
is no agent empowered to accept service of the summons on his behalf, nor any other person on whom
service can be made, 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 shall then return the original to the Court from which it was issued,
with a report endorsed thereon or annexed thereto stating th at 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.

Source and verification

Source citation: CPC (Act V of 1908) First Schedule, Order V, Rule 17 (ISSUE AND SERVICE OF SUMMONS): Pakistan Code portal consolidated official PDF 'THE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, 1908' (First Schedule, Orders I-LI, pp. 58-185), p. 65, ingested 2026-09-15. Automated transcription from official source (pypdf extraction, audited artifact repair); human admin re-check required before production.

Verification status: verified · Text status: auto_transcribed_verified_source

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Official Urdu text status: pending_official_urdu_text. Where official Urdu wording has not been sourced, Qanoon does not substitute an unverified translation for the statutory text.

Historical text notes

1 historical record is linked to this section. Historical wording may be incomplete or pending verification; it is not presented as current law.

• Date not confirmed: Consolidated current text as published in the official Pakistan Code PDF (p. 65) — reflects all amendments recorded in the official footnotes up to ingest date 2026-09-15. Automated transcription; per-amendment version…

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