Ranasinghe & Others vs L.B. Finance Ltd. – sllr 2005 volume 2 page 393

In the case between Ranasinghe & Others (Plaintiff/Respondents) and L. B. Finance Ltd., 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants (Defendant/Petitioners), the central issue concerned whether an ex-parte judgment obtained without proper service of summons, and without an adequate judicial inquiry into such non-service, should be set aside. It was held that dismissal of the application to vacate the ex-parte judgment based on jurisdictional grounds was erroneous. The ruling reaffirmed the principle that failure to serve summons strikes at the root of jurisdiction and renders any resultant decree a nullity unless examined by the court. Reliance was placed on Section 839 of the Civil Procedure Code and established precedents, underscoring that, in the presence of manifest error likely to cause injustice, d