Pleading rejection under Order VII Rule 11 barred a belated wakf property suit for no enforceable cause of action.

A plaint is liable to rejection under Order VII Rule 11 when, on a meaningful reading of the plaint alone, it discloses no cause of action or is barred by statute. Applied here, the suit property did not appear in the 1962 published list of wakf properties, and any challenge to omission from that list had to be pursued within the prescribed statutory period under wakf law. As no timely action was taken by the competent Board, the belated suit disclosed no enforceable right to sue and was barred by the statutory scheme. The Supreme Court therefore restored the Tribunal's rejection of the plaint and set aside the High Court's contrary order.

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Issues: Whether the plaint was liable to be rejected under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 on the ground that the suit property was not shown in the published list of wakf properties and the suit was barred by the Wakf Act.

Analysis: The relevant enquiry for rejection of plaint is confined to the plaint averments and the plaint must disclose a cause of action and an actionable right to sue. On the plaint itself and the supporting gazette notification, the property in question was not included in the list published in 1962 as a wakf property. The survey report precedes publication and merges into the gazette notification, and any grievance about omission from the list had to be pursued within the statutory period under the wakf law. The Board alone could act under the provisions dealing with omitted properties, and no such action was taken. The belated suit filed after about five decades was therefore founded on no enforceable cause and was barred by the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: The plaint was rightly rejectable at the threshold, and the High Court erred in restoring it.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, the High Court's order was set aside, and the Wakf Tribunal's order rejecting the plaint was restored.

Ratio Decidendi: A plaint can be rejected under Order VII Rule 11 when, on a meaningful reading of the plaint alone, the suit discloses no cause of action or is barred by the governing statute, including where the statutory challenge to inclusion or omission of wakf property is not pursued within the prescribed time.

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