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12. The Sub-section (2) of Order 21, Rule 58, C.P.C. says the Court is required to determine all questions 'relevant to the adjudication of claim or objection' shall be determined by the Court. The question whether an application is barred by time or not definitely relates to the adjudication of the claim on merits. It is not a technical plea. It is a plea on merits. The Privy Council in Charan Das v. Amir Khan, AIR 1921 PC 50, at page 51, Col. 2 held as follows :

"In a case such as the present, where the right sought is one involving the dispossession of a perfectly lawful purchaser of property, it is not, in their Lordships' opinion, quite ascurate to say that a plea that such a suit has not been brought within the proper period of time limited by the Act is a technical plea, if by a technical plea is meant a plea which asserts rights which have no merits for their support."