rejection of plaint
Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 requires the court to reject a plaint where (a) it does not disclose a cause of action; (b) the relief is undervalued and the plaintiff fails to correct it within time; (c) it is insufficiently stamped and the deficit is not made good; (d) the suit appears from the plaint to be barred by any law (such as limitation or res judicata); (e) it is not filed in duplicate; or (f) the plaintiff fails to comply with Rule 9.
The court looks only at the plaint and the documents filed with it; the defence in the written statement is irrelevant at this stage. Rejection is not a decision on the merits, so a fresh plaint on the same cause of action is not barred (Order VII Rule 13), but an order of rejection is a deemed decree and is appealable. The court can reject the plaint at any stage. In T. Arivandandam the Court told trial judges to nip vexatious, clever-drafted suits in the bud.
Example
Since the plaint itself showed the suit was filed nine years after the cause of action arose, it was rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) as barred by limitation.
In Indian law
- Order VII Rules 11 and 13, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
- Section 2(2), CPC (rejection of a plaint is a deemed decree)
- T. Arivandandam v. T.V. Satyapal, 1977 INSC 204
See also
plaint · cause of action · limitation · decree
Read more in the study notes
- ADR and the Civil Procedure Code: section 89 and Afcons (Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems)
- Introduction to the CPC: procedural law, history and key definitions (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Plaint: its parts, return and rejection (Order VII) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Judgment and decree: definitions, kinds, and Order XX (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Suits by or against Government and public officers, aliens and foreign States, and suits on public matters (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- The plaint: contents and a model suit for recovery of money (Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance)