Everybody reacts to these the same way, and that is the mistake. A legal notice from somebody’s advocate, a civil summons, a criminal summons, a notice from a tribunal and a notice from the police are five entirely different papers. For one of them, doing nothing costs you almost nothing. For another, doing nothing turns into a warrant. For a third, thirty days is forgivable and a hundred and twenty days is fatal. And for the police notice, a Supreme Court judgment of January 2026 means that complying with it is what protects you. So: find out which paper you are holding. Then decide how worried to be.
Read the top of the page and the signature at the bottom. Between them, those two tell you almost everything.
| The paper | Who sent it | What it asks | If you do nothing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal notice | An advocate, on somebody’s instructions. No court is involved yet | That you do something within a period they chose | No legal penalty — but their version stands unanswered, and a case usually follows |
| Civil summons | A court, in a suit already filed | That you appear and file a written statement | The case proceeds ex parte — decided without you |
| Criminal summons | A criminal court | That you appear in person on a date | A warrant. This is the worst one to ignore |
| Tribunal or authority notice | DRT, NCLT, a consumer commission, a tax or municipal authority | Varies entirely by statute | Its own consequence, and the periods are usually shorter than civil ones |
| Police notice (s.35(3) BNSS) | A police officer, during investigation | That you appear before the officer | You lose the protection that complying gives you — see below |
Identify the paper before you react, because the cost of silence runs from nothing to a warrant. Write the date you received it on it — every period here runs from service and that date is the one nobody keeps. Find out whether your clock is the forgiving kind or the fatal kind, because both exist in the same Code. And read what was actually filed, not what the covering paper says about it.
Write, on the paper itself, the date you received it, and how it came — by hand, by post, by courier, electronically. Keep the envelope.
That sounds trivial. It is the single most consequential thing on this page. Every period described below — thirty days, ninety, a hundred and twenty, the thirty to set aside an ex parte decree — runs from service, not from the date printed on the document, and not from the day you got round to reading it. Months later, when the question is whether you were in time, the answer will be a date somebody has to prove, and the envelope with a postmark is frequently the only thing that proves it.
Start here because it is the commonest and the least understood. A legal notice is a letter. It is written by an advocate on somebody’s instructions, it is addressed to you, and no court has seen it. Nobody has decided anything, nothing has been proved, and receiving one does not oblige you to do anything.
So there is no law that compels a reply, and anybody telling you that you must reply is overstating it. But silence is not free.
A useful reply answers the factual assertions specifically, puts your own facts on record, attaches or refers to what you have, admits nothing for the sake of sounding reasonable, and threatens nothing you would not do. It goes by a mode you can prove. We prepare replies to legal notices to your instructions, and the notice itself where you are the one sending.
One statutory exception is worth naming: the demand notice in a cheque bounce matter runs on a statutory timetable that is genuinely unforgiving, and that is set out on our Section 138 page rather than here.
The sender changes the shape of the matter more than the allegation does, and it is worth thinking about on day one rather than discovering it on date four.
| Sent by | What that usually means |
|---|---|
| An individual, through an advocate | Often genuinely open to settlement, and the person deciding is the person you know |
| A company’s legal department | A process rather than a person. Replies are read, not felt, and a documented answer works better than an explanation |
| A bank or a financial institution | Statutory timelines you may not have started counting — see our DRT and SARFAESI page |
| A government department or authority | Its own statute, its own appeal period, and an internal route that usually has to be used first |
| A recovery or collection agency | Frequently not a legal process at all. See the next section |
| A court, on somebody’s complaint | A case exists. The clock has started whether or not you have read it |
One practical consequence: with an institution, write to the address on the notice and to the officer named, and keep proof. With an individual, the conversation that ends it is often possible and is almost always cheaper now than later.
A very large share of the frightening messages people receive are not legal process at all. They are pressure: calls and messages from a recovery desk saying a case has been filed, that a warrant is coming, that somebody will arrive at your office tomorrow.
The test is the same one as above and it takes a minute. Is there a case number? Which court? Which parties? What date? A real proceeding has all four and is traceable. A message that has none of them, demands payment immediately, and threatens arrest is not a court process, whatever the letterhead says.
And the reverse caution, because both errors are expensive: none of this means you may ignore a real notice because it is inconvenient to believe. Check, then act — do not choose in advance which answer you would prefer.
A summons in a civil suit means a case has been filed and a court has issued process. It comes with, or should come with, the plaint and its annexures.
Under Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the written statement is to be filed within thirty days from service of summons, and the court may extend that, for reasons to be recorded, to an outer limit of ninety days.
And then the part that surprises people who have read only the rule. In Bharat Kalra v. Raj Kishan Chabra (2022) the Supreme Court held that in an ordinary civil suit this time limit is directory and not mandatory, observing that the time limit under Order VIII Rule 1 is not mandatory and that delay in filing could very well be compensated with costs.
Read that carefully before relaxing. “Not mandatory” does not mean there is no period. It means a court may permit a late filing, usually on terms, and usually on costs — and only if somebody asks properly. A defendant who simply does not file, and does not apply, is not helped by this at all.
This is the distinction that catches businesses, and it sits inside the same Code.
Where the Commercial Courts Act applies, the outer limit for the written statement is one hundred and twenty days from service of summons. In M/S SCG Contracts India Pvt. Ltd. v. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., decided on 12 February 2019, the Supreme Court held that this is mandatory: after one hundred and twenty days the defendant forfeits the right to file a written statement, and the court cannot take it on record.
| Ordinary civil suit | Commercial suit | |
|---|---|---|
| First period | 30 days from service | 30 days from service |
| Outer limit | 90 days | 120 days |
| Nature of the limit | Directory — Bharat Kalra (2022) | Mandatory — SCG Contracts (2019) |
| If you are late | Court may allow it, usually on costs, if you apply | The right is forfeited. Nothing can be taken on record |
| What that means for you | Move fast anyway | The date is the case |
So the very first question your advocate should answer, on the first day, is whether your suit is a commercial one. The same three weeks of delay is a costs order in one and the end of your defence in the other. We prepare the written statement to his instructions; what decides the outcome is that the instructions start early enough.
If you do not appear, the court can proceed in your absence and decide the case ex parte. It is as bad as it sounds and it is not always the end.
Under Order IX Rule 13, an ex parte decree may be set aside where the defendant satisfies the court either that the summons was not duly served, or that he was prevented by sufficient cause from appearing when the suit was called on for hearing.
The second proviso is where these applications are usually lost: a decree is not to be set aside on mere irregularity in the service of summons where the defendant had notice of the date of hearing and sufficient time to appear. A technical defect in service is not enough if you in fact knew.
And the period. Article 123 of the Limitation Act gives thirty days — from the date of the decree, or, where the summons was not duly served, from the date on which the applicant had knowledge of the decree. Delay beyond that may be condoned under Section 5 on sufficient cause shown, which is again an application and not a courtesy.
If an ex parte order has been passed against you, treat it as a matter of days. We prepare the application and the affidavit to your advocate’s instructions, with the certified copy of the decree that has to go with it.
If the matter has already gone past a summons to an arrest, go to our arrest and bail guide instead — it covers the first twenty-four hours, the three kinds of bail, and the two rights that expire if nobody claims them.
Of everything on this page, this is the paper where doing nothing is worst, and where doing something is easiest.
A criminal summons requires your appearance before the court on the stated date. Appearing is not an admission of anything; it is how the proceeding is meant to work. Not appearing is what converts a summons into a warrant, and a person against whom a warrant has issued is in a materially worse position than the same person the week before — entirely through their own conduct, which is exactly how it will be described.
A notice from a police officer asking you to appear is frightening in a way the law does not intend, and the position has recently become considerably clearer and better for the person receiving it.
In Satender Kumar Antil v. Central Bureau of Investigation, decided on 15 January 2026, the Supreme Court held that for offences punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, a notice under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita is the rule, while arrest under Section 35(6) is a clear exception. The Court held that no arrest could be made for such offences unless the mandatory requirement of serving a Section 35(3) notice is complied with, and that the officer must record written reasons either for arresting or for concluding that arrest is unnecessary.
So long as a person served with a notice under Section 35(3) complies with it and appears, he cannot be arrested — that is what Section 35(5) provides, and the Court said so in terms.
Which produces advice that is the opposite of most people’s instinct:
| The instinct | What actually helps |
|---|---|
| Avoid going, switch off the phone | Attend. The protection depends on complying |
| Go alone and explain everything | Attend with an advocate, and say what he advises |
| Refuse until a lawyer is arranged | Ask for a short date in writing, keep the copy, and attend on it |
| Treat it as an arrest warrant | It is the statutory alternative to arrest, and the Court has said so |
| Ignore it because it came on a phone | Verify it, then act on it |
If the matter behind the notice is an FIR, our guide to FIR registration and what follows covers the investigation stage from both sides.
These are the ones where general advice is least useful, because each has its own statute, its own period and its own first step — and those periods are usually shorter than a civil suit’s.
Two practical warnings apply across all of them. First, do not apply civil timelines to a tribunal notice; several of them run in weeks and one or two start running before anybody contacts you at all. Second, the first application is often the important one — a stay, an objection, an appeal — and it is frequently a different document from the reply on the merits.
Where your paper came from one of these, go to the page for it rather than relying on this one. The next section is that list.
The paper tells you a proceeding exists. It does not tell you what to do about the underlying dispute, and that is where the real answer is. Find the row that matches what your notice is about and go there.
| If your paper is about | Read |
|---|---|
| A tenant, a landlord, rent, or vacating premises | Landlord and tenant disputes in Delhi |
| Family property, a share, a partition, or a deed being challenged | Family property disputes in Delhi |
| A police matter, an FIR, or being called for investigation | Getting an FIR registered — and what follows |
| Somebody has actually been arrested, or is in custody | Arrest and bail in Delhi |
| The dispute is about a child — custody, guardianship or being stopped from seeing them | Child custody in Delhi |
| Something has been posted about you online, or an account is being used against you | Online abuse and harassment |
| A parent or senior citizen’s maintenance, or a transfer being undone | Senior citizens and parents in Delhi |
| A school — fees, a certificate, admission or removal | School disputes in Delhi |
| Treatment that went wrong, or a hospital | Medical negligence in Delhi |
| A defective product, a deficient service or a rejected claim | The consumer commission in Delhi |
| A dishonoured cheque | Section 138 — cheque bounce |
| A bank enforcing security, or a possession notice | DRT and SARFAESI |
| A company, a shareholding dispute or insolvency | NCLT in Delhi |
| A tax demand or an assessment order | Tax demands and appeals |
| A road accident and compensation | Motor accident claims |
| Divorce, maintenance, custody or a matrimonial matter | The Family Court in Delhi |
| Employment — termination, dues or a workman’s claim | Labour court complaints |
| An FIR you want quashed | Quashing an FIR |
| Which court complex, and what happens inside it | Delhi’s courts |
Most people read the allegation and nothing else. The parts that decide what you do next are elsewhere on the same page.
| Look for | Why it decides something |
|---|---|
| The name of the court or authority | Tells you which of the five papers this is, and which statute governs the clock |
| The case or complaint number and the year | Makes the matter traceable — and a paper with none is worth a second look |
| The parties, spelt exactly | Whether it is even addressed to you, and in what capacity |
| The date fixed | The only deadline the paper itself gives you |
| What is annexed — and whether it is actually attached | A summons without the plaint is half a document, and that is something to raise |
| The relief claimed, at the end of the plaint | What they are actually asking for, which is frequently narrower than the story |
| Who signed it, and their designation | Court, advocate or officer — three different things |
And read what was filed, not what the covering paper says about it. If the plaint or complaint did not come with the summons, ask for it and obtain a certified copy from the record. The gap between the two is very often where the defence is.
Both mistakes are expensive here. Treating a real summons as a scam produces an ex parte decree. Treating a fraud as real produces a payment you will not get back.
| Looks genuine | Should make you cautious |
|---|---|
| A case number, a named court, named parties and a date | No case number, or one that leads nowhere |
| Asks you to appear or to file something | Asks you to pay money now to a person or an account |
| Comes with the plaint or complaint attached | Threatens arrest today unless you act within the hour |
| Arrives by post, by hand, or from a traceable official source | Arrives only from an unknown number on a messaging app |
| Names an advocate with an enrolment number | Tells you not to consult anybody |
The rule that resolves most cases: no court collects money from you over the phone, and no genuine process requires you to keep it secret. If you are unsure, take the paper to an advocate before you take it seriously — and certainly before you pay anybody. Where money has already gone, our online fraud guide explains why the first hours decide whether it can be held.
Service is the legal event that starts every clock on this page, and it is also the ground on which ex parte orders are set aside. So it is worth understanding from both directions.
Electronic service has become ordinary in Indian practice. The safest posture is the opposite of the common one: do not dismiss an electronic summons on the theory that it does not count, and equally do not act on a message without checking that it is genuine.
That last one is the document nobody keeps and everybody needs. If your defence is that the summons never reached you, what establishes it is not your word — it is a bill, a rent agreement, an employer’s record or an official document showing where you were.
Three situations, and in none of them is throwing it away the answer.
It names somebody else. Do not reply as though it were yours. But if it concerns premises you occupy or a matter you are involved in, it matters — and a proceeding is now running with a wrongly described party, which somebody will have to correct.
It names a person who has died. This has a specific procedure and it should be dealt with properly rather than ignored. An unanswered proceeding against a deceased person still produces an order, and somebody will later try to execute it against the estate or the family.
It names you in a capacity you do not hold — as a director you resigned from, a partner who retired, a guarantor you say you never were. Say so, with the document that proves it, at the earliest opportunity. Raised on the first date it is often decisive; raised in year two it looks like an afterthought.
There is a right way and a fatal way, and the difference is entirely about timing.
The right way is an application for exemption or a short adjournment, filed before the date, through an advocate, with the reason stated. Travel, illness, an examination, a genuine clash — these are ordinary and usually accommodated. We prepare the application and the supporting affidavit.
The fatal way is not turning up and explaining afterwards. That is the moment at which a civil matter goes ex parte and a criminal summons becomes a warrant — and both are far harder to undo than they were to avoid.
Where you will be away for a long period, or abroad, say that at the first opportunity and ask for dates to be fixed accordingly. Courts deal with this constantly. What they deal with badly is finding out after the event.
This is worth saying plainly because almost nobody acts on it.
At the notice or first-summons stage, the other side has spent the least money, is least entrenched, and has not yet told a court a version they must now stand by. Six months later all three have changed, and the same settlement costs both sides considerably more to reach.
A defendant is not only a defendant. In appropriate cases a set-off or a counterclaim can be raised in the same proceeding, and the place to do it is the written statement — not a fresh case two years later, by which time limitation and the other side’s decree may both have moved.
So tell your advocate at the first meeting what you believe you are owed, with the documents, even if it feels like a separate matter and even if you had not been planning to claim it. Whether it belongs in this case is his decision; whether he knows about it is yours.
It happens more often than people expect, and it frightens them twice as much as it should. A dishonoured cheque can produce a legal notice, a criminal complaint and a civil recovery suit. A family dispute can produce a police matter and a civil suit at once. A bank can move on the security and file for the money.
Two things to hold on to. First, they are separate proceedings with separate dates, separate papers and separate outcomes — and an order in one is not an order in the other. Second, what you say in one can be produced in the other, which is the real reason to have one advocate holding the whole picture rather than dealing with each paper as it arrives.
People imagine a reply ends the matter or triggers a verdict. It does neither, and knowing the actual shape of what follows prevents most of the disappointment.
In broad terms, and it differs by forum: the pleadings are completed, the court works out what the real points of difference are, evidence goes in — in many forums on affidavit rather than orally — there is cross-examination where the forum requires it, then arguments, then judgment. Alongside that runs whatever interim application either side has filed, and in practice the interim stage is frequently where the matter is really decided.
Nobody writes this down, so people decide to fight without ever pricing it.
There are three costs, and only one of them appears on any page of this website. The court fee and process fee are paid to the court. Your advocate’s fee is a matter between you and him, and no honest Indian site prints it — our page on how advocate fees work explains why and how to agree it so there is no argument later. And there is the cost nobody counts: your own time — dates, travel, documents, and the years during which the thing sits in your head.
None of that is an argument for giving in. It is an argument for choosing deliberately. The people who come out of these matters worst are usually not the ones who lost — they are the ones who never decided to fight and simply found themselves fighting.
For a private legal notice, a properly drafted reply may be all you need, and you can instruct that without engaging anybody for a case. For anything filed in a court or a tribunal, engage one.
The document that puts him on the record is the vakalatnama — signed by you, accepted by him, and relating to that case. Read it, keep a copy, and understand what it covers. Our page on the first meeting with a lawyer sets out what to take and what should happen in the first week; how to choose an advocate covers verifying that somebody is actually enrolled before you hand over your papers; and whether you need one at all is an honest answer rather than a sales page.
Use the directory by practice area. It is free to search and free to write through, it runs A to Z, and no listing on it was bought.
One folder, from the day the paper arrived. The paper itself with the date of receipt written on it, and the envelope. Everything that came with it. Your own dated account, written early. The documents the matter turns on. Every application filed and every order received, with the date you got it. Copies of what your advocate files, which you are entitled to ask for. And one sheet at the front listing the dates — service, the deadline, the next hearing.
That sheet exists for one reason. On this subject almost every question anybody will ask you for the next two years is a date.
| What was done | What it cost |
|---|---|
| Ignored a legal notice because “it is not from a court” | Their version unanswered on record, and the cheapest settlement window gone |
| Ignored a criminal summons | A warrant — a far worse position, self-inflicted |
| Treated a commercial suit like an ordinary one | 120 days passed and the right to file a written statement forfeited |
| Relied on “the time limit is not mandatory” and filed nothing | No application made, so nothing to extend |
| Spent three weeks being upset after an ex parte decree | Most of the thirty days under Article 123 gone |
| Dismissed an electronic summons as a scam | Proceeded ex parte on a genuine case |
| Paid money to somebody who telephoned about a “case” | A fraud, and no case at all |
| Avoided a police notice instead of attending | Lost the protection that complying with a s.35(3) notice gives |
| Threw away the envelope | No way to prove the date of service |
| Never mentioned their own claim until year two | A counterclaim that could have gone in the written statement |
A notice arrives without warning and usually at a bad moment, which is precisely why the free legal services system exists. Several categories of people are entitled to it regardless of income and others below a limit the State Authority notifies, which is revised and which this page therefore does not print. There is a legal services committee sitting in every court complex, and if you are holding a paper with a date on it, that desk is worth walking up to this week rather than next. Ask there, or ask us on the call and we will tell you which desk it is.
The notice or summons itself, with the envelope and the date of receipt on it. Everything that came with it, and a note of anything that was said to be attached but was not. Proof of identity and of the address it went to. Your own dated account of the underlying matter. Every document that account refers to. Any earlier notice, reply or proceeding about the same subject. Anything you have already signed in connection with it. And, where service is in issue, whatever shows where you were actually living at the time.
Add affidavits sworn before an oath commissioner where the application needs them, translations of anything not in English or Hindi, and certified copies of anything already on a court file.
Documents, and nothing else. Nobody here is an advocate, nobody appears for you anywhere, and nobody here will tell you how your case will end. What we do is the reply to a legal notice, the notice where you are sending one, the written statement or reply typed to your advocate’s instructions, the applications — for exemption, for adjournment, to set aside an ex parte order — the petition where one is needed, the affidavits and their attestation, the bail and anticipatory bail documentation, translations, certified copies, the plaint where you are the one filing, and the appeal or execution papers later on.
Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it. The directory is free to open and free to write through, it runs A to Z, and no listing on it was bought.
Open any service page and that document’s price is on it, before you order and before you speak to anybody. Court fees, process fees and anything payable to an oath commissioner or a government office are listed apart from our figure, because that money is not ours.
You hear the whole figure before work begins and nothing is taken in advance. And on this subject the useful thing to say is about sequence rather than price: tell us the date on the paper when you call. It decides what is done first. A reply drafted in time is worth several times a better one drafted late, and if your date is tight we will say so before you order anything.
Listed alphabetically. We do not rank, rate or feature advocates, and nobody pays for a position here — the reason is on our Find an Advocate page. Neither reading a profile nor writing to somebody through it costs anything.
Send us the notice or summons and the date you received it. We will tell you which of the five papers it is, what period attaches to it, whether that period is the forgiving kind or the fatal kind, and which page on this site explains your actual matter — and put the directory in front of you. If your date is tight, we will say so before you order anything. Searching the directory is free and no commission from anybody on it reaches us.
All advocate guides → · Are you an advocate? List your practice free →
Two doors, both free. Clients search a factual directory of enrolled advocates. Advocates apply to be listed on it — no fee, no commission, nothing paid in either direction.
Search Bar Council enrolled advocates by what your matter is about, by court, or by city. Searching and sending a request are both free.
Enrolled advocates anywhere in India can apply to be listed. Your entry is published only after we verify your enrolment number with your State Bar Council.
This directory carries no ratings, no reviews, no rankings and no fees — only the factual particulars the Bar Council of India permits, published at each advocate's own request. Browse the network · Terms for Advocates