LAHORE: The Lahore High Court set aside ex parte decision of an additional district judge Lahore passed against respondent Muhammad Adil and observed limitation is a mixed question of law and fact and it required to be determined on case to case basis.

The court observed that the trial court while dismissing the application filed by the petitioner for setting aside of ex parte decree as the case of the petitioner was that he had not been served with summons rather attained knowledge on his arrest in execution of afore-referred decree, therefore, the impugned order whereby application was dismissed on technical grounds did not appear to be based on proper exercise of jurisdiction by the trial court.

The court observed that a distinction may be drawn in cases where ex parte decree is passed after service of summons and where it is passed due to non-service of summons. The court therefore remanded the matter to the trial court and observed trial court shall decide the same afresh after providing opportunity of hearing to the parties on its own merits in accordance with law.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022