Section 24-C

(1) Every application by a landlord for the recovery of possession of any building on the ground specified in section 24-B shall be made to the District Magistrate and be dealt with in accordance with the procedure specified in this section.

(2) The District Magistrate shall issue summons, in relation to every application referred to in sub-section (1) in the form prescribed.

(3) (a) The District Magistrate shall, in addition to and simultaneously with, the issue of summons for service on the tenant, also direct the summons to be served by registered post, acknowledgment due, addressed to the tenant or his agent empowered to accept the service at the place where the tenant or his agent actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain and may, if the circumstance of the case so require, also direct the publication of the summons in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the tenant is last known to have resided or carried on business or personally worked for gain;

(b) when an acknowledgment purporting to be signed by the tenant or his agent is received by the District Magistrate or the registered article containing the summons is received back with an endorsement purporting to have been made by a postal employee to the effect that the tenant or his agent had refused to take delivery of the registered article the District Magistrate may declare that there has been a valid service of summons.

(4) The tenant on whom the summons is duly served (whether in the ordinary way or by registered post) shall not contest the prayer for eviction from the premises unless he files an affidavit staging the grounds on which he seeks to contest the application for eviction and obtain leave from the District Magistrate as hereinafter provided, and in default of his appearance in pursuance of the summons or his obtaining such leave, the statement made by the landlord in the applications for eviction shall be deemed to be admitted by the tenant and the applicant shall be entitled to an order for eviction on the ground aforesaid.

(5) The District Magistrate shall give to the tenant leave to contest the application if the affidavit filed by the tenant discloses such facts as would disentitle the landlord from obtaining an order for the recovery of possession of the premises on the ground specified in section 24-B.

(6) Where leave is granted to the tenant to contest the applications, the District Magistrate shall commence the hearing of the application as early as practicable.

(7) No appeals or second appeal shall lie against an order for the recovery of possession of any premises made by the District Magistrate in accordance with the procedure specified in this section :

Provided that the District Judge, for the purpose of satisfying himself that an order made by the District Magistrate under this section is according to law, call for the records of the case and pass such order in respect thereto as he thinks fit.

(8) Where no application has been made to the District Judge on revision, the District Magistrate may exercise the posers of review in accordance with the provisions of order XLVII of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.]¹