Question

As per the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, where the plaintiff in a civil suit fails to pay the requisite court fee or postal charges for service of summons within the time permitted by the court, the court may:

• A. Return the plaint for fresh presentation.
• B. Dismiss the suit.
• C. Stay the proceedings until service is effected.
• D. Proceed to decide the suit on merits.

Hint:

In CPC, failure to comply with procedural directions relating to service of summons generally results in dismissal for default rather than adjudication on merits.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Civil procedure places the responsibility of moving a suit forward on the plaintiff, and paying for service of summons is one of those responsibilities.

1. Return the plaint for fresh presentation: this remedy exists for jurisdictional defects in the plaint itself, not for a plaintiff's failure to fund service after the suit has already been filed, so it has no connection to the situation here.
2. Dismiss the suit: when a plaintiff who is supposed to actively pursue the litigation stops cooperating by not paying the fee needed to serve the defendant, the natural and codified consequence is that the suit is treated as not being pursued and is dismissed.
3. Stay the proceedings until service is effected: a stay would reward continued inaction by keeping the suit alive indefinitely without pushing the plaintiff to act, which runs against the purpose of holding parties to their procedural duties.
4. Proceed to decide the suit on merits: deciding the case without the defendant ever being served would mean deciding it one-sided, which the law does not permit regardless of how strong the plaintiff's case may look on paper.

Because the default lies with the plaintiff and the law treats it as a failure to prosecute, the suit is liable to be dismissed.

The correct answer is dismiss the suit.

Answer 2

One way to settle this is to test each option by asking what practical consequence would follow if the court adopted it, and to see which consequence actually matches how the Code of Civil Procedure treats a plaintiff who does not pay for service of summons.

1. Return the plaint for fresh presentation: if the plaint were returned, the plaintiff would simply refile it elsewhere or in the same court, which does not resolve the underlying non-payment of charges at all and only adds a fresh round of formality without consequence for the default.
2. Dismiss the suit: dismissing the suit directly ties a real consequence to the plaintiff's inaction, since the plaintiff who fails to pay for service loses the suit for want of prosecution, which is exactly the outcome the law attaches to this kind of default.
3. Stay the proceedings until service is effected: if the court merely stayed the case, service would still never happen because the plaintiff has not paid for it, so the suit would remain stuck indefinitely with no mechanism to force resolution, which is not how the Code deals with unprosecuted suits.
4. Proceed to decide the suit on merits: deciding the merits without the defendant being served would produce a decree against a party who was never given a chance to defend, an outcome the law actively avoids because it violates basic fairness.

Testing the consequences against the statutory scheme confirms that only dismissal produces the outcome the Code actually intends for a plaintiff's default in paying for service.

Therefore, the correct answer is dismiss the suit.