Benami transaction threshold requires plaint averments and annexures to plainly disclose a statutory benami arrangement before rejection.

A plaint alleging that property was acquired in a son's name from joint family income and held for the joint family does not, on its face, establish a benami transaction. At the Order 7 Rule 11 stage, consideration is confined to plaint averments and annexed documents. The notes state that statutory exclusions cover property held by a Hindu undivided family's Karta or member for family benefit from known sources, and property acquired in a child's name from known individual sources. A benami objection may be proved at trial, but cannot justify threshold rejection unless the pleadings plainly disclose a statutory benami transaction.

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Issues: Whether the plaint seeking declaration of property as joint family property was liable to rejection as barred by Section 4 of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.

Analysis: At the stage of an application under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code, only the plaint averments and documents annexed to it may be considered. The pleadings stated that the property was acquired in the name of a son out of the nucleus of joint family income and was held as joint family property. Such assertions did not, on their face, disclose a benami transaction. The statutory definition also excludes property held by a Karta or member of a Hindu undivided family for family benefit out of known family sources, and property acquired in the name of a child from known sources of the individual. A benami objection could be raised and established at trial, but could not sustain rejection of the plaint at the threshold.

Conclusion: The plaint was not barred by the prohibition against benami claims and could not be rejected under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code.

Ratio Decidendi: A plaint cannot be rejected as pursuing a benami claim unless its own averments and annexed documents plainly disclose a transaction falling within the statutory definition of benami transaction.

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