Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 – Or.7 r.11 – Return of plaint – Limitation – Plaintiffs-respondents, grandchildren of the original owner filed suit for partition in 2023 seeking partition of the ancestral joint immovable property – Defendantsappellants, remaining family members filed application u/o.7 r.11 seeking return of plaint as suit was barred by limitation – Case of the appellants that the property had already been partitioned in 1968 amongst the sons and had been mutated, and family members including aunt of the respondents had disposed their property through registered sale deeds in 1978 – Trial court allowed the application and dismissed the suit finding no cause of action – High Court holding that there were triable issues allowed the appeal of the respondents and remanded the matter back to the trial court:
Held: Plaintiff failed to address the crucial question of when they became aware of the registered sale deeds – Pleadings suggest suppression of essential facts by the plaintiffs – Partition took place way back in 1968 and suit is filed in 2023, after a period of 55 years – Many of the family members had executed registered sale deeds in 1978 which have been attached – Registered document provides a complete account of a transaction to any party interested in the property – Predecessors of the plaintiffs had notice of the registered sale deeds executed in 1978, flowing from the partition that took place way back in 1968, by virtue of them being registered documents – In the lifetime of plaintiff’s father, these sale deeds were not challenged, nor partition was sought – Thus, the suit filed in 2023 by the plaintiffs was prima facie barred by law – Plaintiffs cannot reignite their rights after sleeping on them for 45 years – Trial court rightly allowed the application of the appellants u/or.7 r.11 holding that the suit filed by the plaintiffs was a meaningless litigation, it did not disclose a proper cause of action and was barred by limitation – No justifiable reasons for the appellate court to have remanded the matter to the trial court – Impugned judgment set aside – Or.41 r.1. [Paras 11-13, 17, 18]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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