The issue of limitation is a mixed question of facts and law and could only be decided after the trial is over.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Civil Revision Petition filed under Article 227 of Constitution of India, against the fair order and decretal order of the District Munsif, Perundurai dated 13.06.2016, in dismissing I.A.No.476 of 2015 in O.S.No.79 of 2010 filed under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.)

The instant Civil Revision Petition has been filed challenging the fair and decretal order of the Court below dismissing an application filed under Order VII Rule 11 read with Section 151 of C.P.C.

2. The case of the petitioner is that the first petitioner Trust has been formed by the petitioners 2 to 9 and the respondents and they were Members cum Directors of the petitioner Trust. As certain Members of the Trust had acted against the interest of the Trust, the first petitioner Trust had issued a show-cause notice calling upon such individuals to submit their responses. On 09.06.2002, the General Body of the first petitioner herein passed a resolution removing the respondents from the Trust.

(i). The respondents herein had filed a suit in the year 2010 challenging the resolution dated 09.06.2002 and for a declaration that they were continuing to be the Trustees of the first petitioner Trust and for a consequential permanent injunction restraining the defendants 2 to 9 therein from any way and in any manner prevent the plaintiffs in participating in meeting and other proceedings of the first petitioner Trust.

(ii). The suit was taken up for trial and is in the process of examining the defendant side witnesses after the plaintiffs side evidence was closed. At this juncture, the petitioner herein along with three other persons had filed an application under Order VII Rule 11 read with Section 151 of C.P.C. seeking to reject the plaint on the ground that the suit as framed by the respondents/plaintiffs is barred by Article 58 of the Limitation Act. Resisting the same, the respondents herein filed a counter statement contending that the evidence of the plaintiffs were closed and that DW1 had also filed the proof affidavit. At that stage, the respondents gave a notice to the petitioner to produce some documents which were in the custody of the petitioners/defendants. They have also averred that the suit has been laid after the honourable acquittal by a criminal Court in a complaint made by the Trust. The allegations made by the Trust for removal of these respondents and the allegations in the criminal complaint filed by the Trust were one and the same. After the criminal Court has held that the allegations are baseless and acquitted the respondents, the respondents had filed the present suit and hence the suit is not time barred and is well within the period of limitation.

3. The learned Trial Judge had considered the case of the respective parties by its order dated 13.06.2016 had dismissed the application filed by the petitioners holding that the question of limitation is a question of mixed facts and law and that the facts could not be decided at the present stage, and to decide the same evidences put-forth by both the parties have to be taken into consideration.

4. Being aggrieved against the said order, the present revision has been filed.

5. Heard Mr.V.Lakshmi Narayanan, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr.V.Anadhamurthy, learned counsel for the respondents 1 to 8.

6. Learned counsel for the petitioners vehemently contended that the Court below wholly erred in rejecting the application filed under Order VII Rule 11 by holding that it is not the correct stage when such an application could be entertained and that the question of law being mixed question of facts and law could only be decided after the trial is over.

7. It is also further argued that the resolution of the first petitioner removing the respondents as Members/Directors of the Trust was passed on 09.06.2002 which was the crucial date when the right to sue first accrues and that the acquittal in the criminal proceedings could not be a