The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement of obtaining leave under Order 2 Rule 2 CPC when filing a suit for partition, and the consequences of non-compliance with this requirement.

R. SUBBIAH, J.

1. The present application has been filed by the applicant/first defendant in the suit in C.S. No. 564 of 2013 under Order XIV Rule 8 of O.S. Rules read with Order VII Rule 11 CPC to reject the plaint filed by respondents 1 to 3/plaintiffs 1 to 3.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties will be referred to as per their ranking in the civil suit.

3. The plaintiffs have filed the suit in C.S. No. 564 of 2013 to pass a preliminary decree for division of suit “A” schedule property by metes and bounds, into four shares and to allot one share each to the plaintiffs individually and jointly three shares to plaintiffs and one share to the first defendant and for other incidental reliefs.

4. Before dealing with the application filed by the first defendant under Order VII Rule 11 CPC for rejection of the plaint, this Court is of the opinion, it would be appropriate to extract the averments made in the plaint and hence, the averments made in the plaint, in nutshell, are set out hereunder:-

(a) The plaintiffs 1 to 3 and the first defendant are the brothers and they are the sons of late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar. The defendants 2 to 36 are the lessees/tenants in occupation of different portions of the plaint schedule property. The said P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar came from his native village and settled in Chennai. He started a provisional store business under the name and style of Devi Ratnamala Provision Stores to eke out his livelihood. After completion of studies, plaintiffs 1 and 2 secured employment and were earning independently. They were also assisting their father P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar in running the provisional store business while continuing their studies. The third plaintiff had started a book binding business and even now, he is doing the said business. The first defendant is the eldest son of late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar. He did not evince any interest in his studies and he did not attend school regularly. The said P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar died on 24.10.2011.

(b) During his life time, late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar advised his four sons including the first defendant to purchase the suit property jointly. On his advice, the plaintiffs had contributed substantial amount for the purchase of the suit property. Since the first defendant was unemployed, he was unable to contribute any amount for the purchase of the suit property. Hence, their mother came forward to sell her 50 sovereigns of gold ornaments and provided the said funds on behalf of the first defendant for purchase of the suit property. Thus, the suit property was purchased under a registered sale deed dated 9.9.1996 registered as document No. 1954 of 1996 in the joint names of the plaintiffs and the first defendant. Therefore, all the four persons are joint owners of the suit property.

(c) At the time of purchase, the suit property comprised of only ground floor and first floor and the late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar during his life time, was looking after the suit property and received lump sum amounts from the lessees to be adjusted against rents and also rental advances and put up additional construction. After such construction, the entire property was let out to the tenants and the total rental income realised from the lessees/tenants was nearly Rs. 1,50,000/- i.e. from defendants 2 to 36, who are the tenants, presently occupying different portions. The said late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar, out of the rental income and the income from his business, had celebrated the marriages of all the sons and daughter and the first defendant never contributed any amount nor had any source of income to assist his father. The late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar himself had given vouchers/receipts to the lessees/tenants for all the amounts received as rental advances and only these amounts alone are to be repaid by the plaintiffs and the first defendant.

(d) The late P.R. Rajaperumal Nadar originally started a provisional store business. Later, he had also started a business in t