Order 6 — ISSUE OF ORIGINATING PROCESS

Origiating process shall be prepared by a claimant or his Legal Practitioner, and shall be clearly printed on good quality paper.

(1) The Registrar shall sign, stamp and seal every originating process whereupon it shall be deemed to be issued.

(2) A claimant or his 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.

(3) Each copy shall be signed by the Legal Practitioner or by a claimant where, if a natural person, he sues in person and shall be certified after verification by the Registrar as being a true copy of the original process filed.

The Registrar shall after sealing an originating process, note on it the date of filing and the number of copies supplied by a claimant or his 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 personal 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 a Claimant or Applicant or one of the several Claimants verifying the contents of the process.

(1) In case service of an Originating Process shall not have been effected within one year from the date of its issue, the process shall cease to have effect for purpose of service unless at any time before or after the expiration of the current period, the Court, on the application of the Claimant, renews the process for a further period not exceeding six months at a time. Such a process not served after two years of its issue, shall become void altogether and the suit shall be struck out.

(2) Before an Originating Process, the validity of which has been extended under this provision is served, it shall be marked with an official stamp showing the period for which the validity of the process, has been so extended.

(3) Where the validity of an Originating Process is extended by order made under this rule, the order shall operate in relation to any other process (whether initial or concurrent) issued in the same action which has not been served, so as to extend the validity of that other process until the expiration of the period specified in the order.

Where an originating process is lost after issue, a Judge, 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 claimant 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 original 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.