1. This Is an appeal by defendants Nos. 11 to 20 against an order dismissing their application under Order IX. Rule 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The application was for setting aside an ex parte decree dated the 14th March. 1967, in Partition suit No. 45 of 1965, of the court of the first Subordinate Judge, Gaya. The application was filed on the 17th June, 1967.

2. The case of the appellants was that all the processes in the suit were fraudulently suppressed and they had no knowledge of the suit till the 9th of June, 1967, when they came to know of the suit and the ex parte decree from one Kamta Tiwary (A. W. 1).

3. In their rejoinder, the plaintiff-respondents claimed that the appellants had knowledge of the suit when the summonses in the suit were made over to them by the court peon and again when the registered post-cards were tendered to them by the postal peon. Further, there was also substituted service under Order V, Rule 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure by publishing the summonses in the Bihar Gazette and the appellants must be deemed to have notice of the suit.

4. The court below has disbelieved the case of the appellants that they had no knowledge of the su