Order 6 — Originating Process

An originating process shall be prepared by a Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s Legal Practitioner, and shall be clearly printed on A4 white opaque paper of good quality.

(1) Issue of an originating process takes place when it is signed by the Registrar or other officer of the court authorised to sign the originating process.

(2) A Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s Legal Practitioner shall, on presenting any originating process for sealing, leave with the Registrar as many copies of the process as there are Defendants to be served and one copy for endorsement of service on each Defendant.

The Registrar shall, after sealing an originating process, file it and note on it the date of filing and the number of copies supplied by a Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s Legal Practitioner for service on the Defendants. The Registrar shall then make an entry of the filing in the cause book and identify the action with a suit number that may comprise abbreviation of the Judicial Division, a chronological number and the year of filing.

The Registrar shall promptly arrange for service on each Defendant of a copy of the originating process and accompanying documents.

The originating process in probate actions shall be accompanied by an affidavit sworn to by the Plaintiff or one of several Plaintiffs verifying the contents of the process.

(1) The life span of every originating process shall be 3 months.

(2) Where the Court is satisfied that it has proved impossible to serve an originating process on any Defendant within its life span and a Plaintiff applies before its expiration for renewal of the process, the Court may renew the originating process for 3 months from the date of such renewal.

(3) Where the lifespan of an originating process has expired and it has proved impossible to serve any Defendant, the Court may, upon an application by the Plaintiff renew the originating process for 3 months from the date of such renewal.

The Court may order two renewals in each case strictly for good cause and upon prompt application, provided that no originating process for which service is required but which has not been served shall be in force for longer than a total of 9 months.

Where an originating process is lost after issue, the Court, upon being satisfied of the loss and of the correctness of the process, may order the copy to be filed and sealed in place of the lost originating process.

A Plaintiff may, at the issuance of an originating process or at any time during its life span, cause to be issued one or more concurrent originating processes each to bear the same date as the initial process marked ‘CONCURRENT’ and have stated on it the date of issue.

An originating process for service within jurisdiction may be issued and marked as a concurrent originating process with one for service out of jurisdiction and an originating process for service out of the jurisdiction may be issued and marked as a concurrent originating process with one for service within jurisdiction.