Order VII Rule 11(d) cannot defeat a company suit where director authority is curable and no statutory bar appears on the plaint.

Order VII Rule 11(d) permits rejection of a plaint only where the bar to the suit is apparent from the plaint itself. A company may act through its board and authorise a director or officer to institute proceedings, sign pleadings, and pursue civil litigation. Where the board has approved a power of attorney and the company has confirmed the authority, the absence of a specific resolution for that particular suit is, at most, a curable procedural defect. It does not create a statutory bar, so the plaint cannot be rejected on that ground.

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Issues: Whether a plaint filed by a company through a director, without a specific board resolution authorising institution of the particular suit, could be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and whether such defect was curable.

Analysis: Order VII Rule 11(d) applies only where the suit, on the averments in the plaint itself, appears to be barred by law. A company, being a juristic person, acts through its board and may authorise a director or other officer to initiate proceedings. The record showed that the board had approved a power of attorney authorising the director to initiate legal proceedings, sign and verify pleadings, and facilitate civil suits on behalf of the company. The objection raised by the defendant did not disclose any statutory bar to institution of the suit; at the highest, it pointed to a procedural irregularity or curable defect. Such a matter could not justify rejection of the plaint under Order VII Rule 11(d), particularly when the company had confirmed the authority and the defect, if any, stood ratified.

Conclusion: The rejection of the plaint was unsustainable and the objection under Order VII Rule 11(d) failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A plaint cannot be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) unless the bar to the suit is apparent from the plaint itself; absence of a specific resolution authorising a director to institute a company suit is, at most, a curable procedural defect and not a statutory bar to the suit.

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