Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act 1997

This Act may be cited as the Civil Procedure Code

(Amendment) Act, No. 14 of 1997 and shall come into operation on such date, as the Minister may by Order published in the Gazette, appoint.

Section 55 of the Civil Procedure Code (hereinafter referred to as the “principal enactment”) is hereby amended by the repeal of subsection (1)

of that section and the substitution therefor of the following subsection :—

Upon the plaint being filed and the copies of concise statements required by section 49 presented, the court shall order summons in the form No. 16 in the First Schedule to issue, signed by the Registrar of the court, requiring the defendant to answer the plaint on or before a day to be specified in the summons, such day, being a day not later than three months from the date of the institution of the action in court. ”.

Sections 59, 60 and 61 of the principal enactment are hereby repealed and the following sections substituted therefor :—

“Service of

§9.

Summons shall ordinarily be served

(a) In the case of a corporation, or incorporate body summons may be delivered to the registered office or if there is no registered office,the principal place of business of such corporation or body.

Where the defendant is a public officer the court may send summons by registered post to the head of the department in which the defendant is employed, and it shall be the duty of such head of department to cause the sum-mons to be served personally on the defendant.

Where the court is prima facie satisfied that the defendant is in the employment of another person, the court may send the summons to the employer at his place of business or, where the employee is a company or corporation, to any secretary, manager or other like officer of the company or corporation, and it shall be the duty of such employer or officer, as the case may be, to cause the summons to be served personally on the defendant.

In every case in which the summons are

Where a defendant appears in court in person on summons being served on him in the manner referred to above, he shall produce his national identity card or a valid passport, as the case may be, and it shall be the duty of the judge to satisfy himself that the person who has appeared before him and the person on whom summons have been served in the manner aforesaid, is one and the same person.

Where a defendant is represented by a registered attorney, the attorney shall in the proxy tendered on behalf of the defendant, state the number of the identity card or the passport, as the case may be, of the defendant and shall also make an endorsement thereon certifying the identity of such defendant, where a proxy is tendered on behalf of a company or a body corporate it shall be tendered under the seal of such company or the body corporate, as the case may be.

In this section—

when used with reference to a person employed in a local authority, if the local authority is a Municipal

when used with reference to any other public officer means the head of the department of Government in which such person is employed ; and

Thecourt shall, where it is reported that summons could not be effected by regis-tered post or where the summons having been served and the defendant fails to appear, direct that such summons be served personally on the defendant by delivering or tendering to him the said summons through the Fiscal or the

Iftheservice referred to in the preceding provisions of this section cannot by the exercise of due diligence be effected, the Fiscal or

Amendment of section 62 of the principal enactment. 5.

Section 209 of the principal enactment is hereby repealed and the following section substituted therefor :—

209.

Replacement of section 209 of the principal enactment. “Court always to

When disposing of any application or have power © BIE action under this Ordinance, whether of regu-or reserve costs.

lar or of summary procedure, the court may, unless elsewhere in this Ordinance otherwise directed, give to either party, the costs of such application or action, or may reserve the con-sideration of such costs for any future stage of the proceedings. The court may in its order, fix the amount of the costs of such application or action, so however, that the amount so fixed shall not be less than fifty per centum of the amount of costs that may be given in an application or action of that category, at such

Tates as may be prescribed for the purposes of section 214, and not more than two hundred per centum of the amount of costs that may be given in an application or action of that category, at such rates as may be prescribed for the purposes of section 214. Any order for the payment of costs only, is a decree for money within the provisions of section 194 as to payments by instalments.”.

Section 210 of the principal enactment is hereby repealed and the following section substituted therefor :—

210.

“Court shall direct

The decree or order shall direct by by be pad ant who, the costs of each party are to be paid, and

Whether in wholeor in what part or proportion.

estimate valuein certain cases,

The court shall, in decrees entered in such classes of action as are prescribed, give its estimate of the value of the action, and such estimate shall be deemed to be the value of the action, for the purposes of applying the rates prescribed for the purposes of section 214, to that action.”.

3-D 042320—

Section 211 of the principal enactment is hereby amended as follows :—

by the renumbering of that section as subsection (1)

by the addition immediately after the renumbered subsection (1) of the following new subsection :—

Section 213 of the principal enactment is hereby repealed and the following section substituted therefor :—

“Court may give

213. The court may give interest on interest on costs.

.

.

x“

:

costs at the legal rate per annum as specified in section 192 of the Ordinance, calculated from the date of the decree, and may direct that costs, with or without interest, be paid out of, or charged upon, the subject matter of the action.”.

Section214 ofthe principal enactmentis hereby repealed and the following section substituted therefor :—

“Costs to be taxed.

214. All bills of costs, whether between party and parties, or between registered at-torney and client, shall be taxed by the Regis-trar of the court in either case according to such

Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, No. 14 of 1997

rates as may be prescribed. If either party is dissatisfied with this taxation, the matter in dispute shall be referred to the court for its decision, and the decision of the court (except when it is the decision of the Court of Appeal)

be liable to an appeal to the Court of Appeal.”.

The following new section is hereby inserted immediately after section 417 of the principal enactment and shall have effect as section 417a of that enactment :—

‘ Amount of 417a. The security for payment of costs payment or costs.

fixed by order made under section 416 or 417

shall in no case exceed the aggregate of the following :—

the total costs that can be ordered in an action of that category, at the rates prescribed for the purposes of section 214; and

five hundred thousand rupees to meet incidential expenses, such as expenses that may be incurred in procuring the evidence and attendance of witnesses living abroad.”.

Sections 705A and 705 b of the principal enactment are hereby repaled.

Section 756 of the principal enactment is hereby amended by the repeal of subsection (1) of that section and the substitution therefor of the following subsection :—

“(1) The security which is required to be deposited by a party appellant shall be made by way of deposit of a sum of money or hypothecation of immovable property, to cover the costs of appeal and to no greater amount :

Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, No. 14 of 1997

Provided that where money is deposited as security, the same shall be deemed to have been hypothecated in favour of the Registrar of the court, for the payment of all costs which shall be incurred and taxed in prosecution of such appeal if the appellant is decreed to pay the same: ”.

The following new section is hereby added immediately after section 839 of the principal enactment and shall have effect as section 840 of that enactment :—

“Regulations.

840. (1) The Minister may make regulations for, and in respect of all or any of the matters, for which regulations are required or author-ised to be made by this Ordinance, or which are required by this Ordinance to be prescribed.

Every regulation made by the Minister shall be published in the Gazette and shall come into operation on the date of such publication or on such later date as may be specified in the regulation.

Every regulation shall, as soon as convenient after publication in the Gazette, be brought before Parliament for approval. Any regulation which is not so approved shall be deemed to be rescinded as from the date of its disapproval, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.

Notification of the date on which any regulation made by the Minister is so deemed to be rescinded, shall be published in the

The First Schedule to the principal enactment is hereby amended by the repeal of form No.129 of that

Schedule.

Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, No. 14 of 1997

The Second Schedule to the principal enactment is hereby repealed.

Inthe event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.