IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Return and rejection of plaint – If a plaint is rejected under Order VII Rule 11 of CPC, only remedy is to file a fresh plaint within parameters of Order VII Rule 13 of CPC and question of presenting same plaint before appropriate court does not arise.
(2) Court should not be a party to practice of allowing a litigant to use one court for the purpose of temporary reliefs and another court for permanent reliefs.

JUDGMENT :

V. RAMASUBRAMANIAN, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals arise out of a common order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, allowing two revision applications that were directed against two separate orders passed on the same day by the 9th Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune, respectively in the applications filed under Order VII Rule 10 and Order VII Rule 11 CPC by some of the defendants in a suit.

3. We have heard Shri Shyam Divan, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants and Shri Mukul Rohatgi, Shri K.V. Viswanathan, learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents who were the civil revision applicants before the High Court. Shri Vikram Hegde, learned counsel accepts notice for defendant No. 117 who was the applicant in the petition under Order VII Rule 11 CPC.

4. The appellants herein filed a civil suit on the file of the 9th Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune, against 141 defendants seeking various reliefs.

5. After service of summons, defendant Nos. 66, 67, 139 and 117 filed separate applications under Order VII Rule 10 CPC seeking the return of the plaint for presentation to the proper court, on the ground that the suit schedule properties are situate within the jurisdiction of the appropriate courts in Bengaluru.

6. Defendant No. 117 filed one more application under Order VII Rule 11(a) and (d) CPC, seeking rejection of the plaint, contending that the court in Pune does not have territorial jurisdiction to grant reliefs in respect of immovable properties situate within the jurisdiction of the courts in Bengaluru and also that the suit is barred by the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.

7. By two independent orders passed on the same date, namely, 22.4.2022, the Trial Court dismissed all the applications, filed both under Order VII Rule 10 and Order VII Rule 11 CPC.

8. Defendant Nos. 138 and 117 challenged the said orders of the Trial Court before the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in two civil revision applications.

9. By a common order dated 23.1.2023, the High Court allowed both the civil revision applications. It is against these orders that the plaintiffs have come up with the above appeals.

10. The appeal arising out of that portion of the impugned order where Civil Revision Application No. 5 of 2023 filed by defendant No. 117 was allowed, is capable of being disposed of without much ado. This is for the reason that the entire discussion and analysis in the impugned order, which commence from paragraph 12, revolve only around the provisions of Order VII Rule 10 CPC. But in the penultimate paragraph, the High Court has allowed both the civil revision applications. This has resulted in something which is a contradiction in terms. Once an application under Order VII Rule 11 is allowed, the plaint stands rejected and hence the question of presenting the same plaint before the appropriate court does not arise. Under Order VII Rule 13, the rejection of plaint on the grounds stated in the preceding Rules, shall not of its own force, preclude the plaintiff from presenting a fresh plaint in respect of the same cause of action. Therefore, if a plaint is rejected under Order VII Rule 11, the only remedy is to file a fresh plaint within the parameters of Order VII Rule 13 and the question of presenting the same plaint before the appropriate court does not arise.

11. But as it sometimes happens, the High Court has overlooked the obvious and allowed both the applications under Order VII Rule 10 and Order VII Rule 11 at one stroke. That the High Court did not have the intention to reject the plaint, is obvious from a reading of the penultimate paragraph of the impugned order, where the High Court has granted liberty to the plaintiffs to present the suit before the appropriate civil court at Bengaluru. But if the appellants-plaintiffs try to do that, a technical objection may be raised that the application under Order VII Rule 11 also stood allowed. This is apart from the fact that th