Substituted service requires due diligence and strict compliance before an ex parte decree can stand.

Substituted service is valid only where the serving officer, after using all due and reasonable diligence, cannot find the defendant, and strict compliance with the prescribed mode of service is essential before an ex parte decree can be sustained. Service in person was not effected, the case did not involve service on an authorised agent, and the attempted affixture was invalid because the officer failed to make proper enquiry or real efforts to locate the defendant at his ordinary place of residence. Mere probability of knowledge of the suit could not cure defective formal service. The ex parte decree therefore could not stand, and the application to set it aside succeeded.

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Issues: Whether the summons was duly served by substituted service so as to sustain the ex parte decree, and whether the defendant was entitled to have that decree set aside.

Analysis: Service in person was not effected, and the case did not fall within service on an agent empowered to accept service. The attempted substituted service was held invalid because the serving officer did not use all due and reasonable diligence to find the defendant. The summons was taken to the defendant's place of business under a mistaken assumption that it was his residence, and affixture there, without proper enquiry or real effort to locate him at the place where he ordinarily resided, did not satisfy the requirements of the Code. Mere probability that the defendant had knowledge of the suit was insufficient when formal service had not been proved in the manner required by law.

Conclusion: The summons was not duly served, and the ex parte decree could not stand. The application to set aside the decree was entitled to succeed.

Ratio Decidendi: Substituted service is valid only when the serving officer, after using all due and reasonable diligence, cannot find the defendant, and strict compliance with the prescribed mode of service is essential before an ex parte decree can be sustained.

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