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(d) Directing the defendant to pay the cost of this suit.

2. The said suit was filed in the year 2001. Cause of action of the said suit was said to have arisen in 1994 when the defendants allegedly trespassed over the suit property. Respondent on or about 8.8.2001 filed an application under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for rejection of the plaint on the premise that the suit was barred by limitation, inter alia, stating :

2. I beg to submit that the Respondent/Plaintiff in the plaint paragraph 4 with respect to the question of limitation has averred that he had the knowledge of the mistake with regard to the boundaries in the sale deed only on 2.11.1998 for the purpose of satisfying the court to admit the plaint.
When the averments in the plaint are considered in the background of the principles set out in Sopan Sukhdeo case the inevitable conclusion is that the Division Bench was not right in holding that Order VII Rule 11 CPC was applicable to the facts of the case. Diverse claims were made and the Division Bench was wrong in proceeding with the assumption that only the non-execution of lease deed was the basic issue. Even if it is accepted that the other claims were relatable to it they have independent existence. Whether the collection of amounts by the respondent was for a period beyond 51 years needs evidence to be adduced. It is not a case where the suit from statement in the plaint can be said to be barred by law. The statement in the plaint without addition or subtraction must show that it is barred by any law to attract application of Order VII Rule 11. This is not so in the present case.

11. However, we may notice that another Division Bench of this Court, in Balasaria Construction (P) Ltd. v. Hanuman Seva Trust & Ors. [(2006) 5 SCC 658], stated the law thus :

After hearing counsel for the parties, going through the plaint, application under Order VII Rule 11(d) CPC and the judgments of the trial court and the High Court, we are of the opinion that the present suit could not be dismissed as barred by limitation without proper pleadings, framing of an issue of limitation and taking of evidence. Question of limitation is a mixed question of law and fact. Ex facie in the present case on the reading of the plaint it cannot be held that the suit is barred by time. The findings recorded by the High Court touching upon the merits of the dispute are set aside but the conclusion arrived at by the High Court is affirmed. We agree with the view taken by the trial court that a plaint cannot be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure.

12. In the said decision, it may be placed on record, on the question as to whether Order VII Rule 11(d) can be applied when a suit was filed on the premise that a suit is barred by limitation, this Court noticed :

This case was argued at length on 30-8-2005. Counsel appearing for the appellant had relied upon a judgment of this Court in N.V. Srinivasa Murthy v. Mariyamma for the proposition that a plaint could be rejected if the suit is ex facie barred by limitation. As against this, counsel for the respondents relied upon a later judgment of this Court in Popat and Kotecha Property v. State Bank of India Staff Assn. in respect of the proposition that Order VII Rule 11(d) was not applicable in a case where a question has to be decided on the basis of fact that the suit was barred by limitation. The point as to whether the words barred by law occurring in Order VII Rule 11(d) CPC would include the suit being barred by limitation was not specifically dealt with in either of these two judgments, cited above. But this point has been specifically dealt with by the different High Courts in Mohan Lal Sukhadia University v. Priya Soloman, Khaja Quthubullah v. Govt. of A.P., Vedapalli Suryanarayana v. Poosarla Venkata Sanker Suryanarayana, Arjan Singh v. Union of India wherein it has been held that the plaint under Order VII Rule 11(d) cannot be rejected on the ground that it is barred by limitation. According to these judgments the suit has to be barred by a provision of law to come within the meaning of Order VII Rule 11 CPC. A contrary view has been taken in Jugolinija Rajia Jugoslavija v. Fab Leathers Ltd. , National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Navrom Constantza , J. Patel & Co. v. National Federation of Industrial Coop. Ltd. and State Bank of India Staff Assn. v. Popat & Kotecha Property. The last judgment was the subject-matter of challenge in Popat and Kotecha Property v. State Bank of India Staff Assn. This Court set aside the judgment and held in para 25 as under: (SCC p. 517) 25 . When the averments in the plaint are considered in the background of the principles set out in Sopan Sukhdeo case the inevitable conclusion is that the Division Bench was not right in holding that Order VII Rule 11 CPC was applicable to the facts of the case. Diverse claims were made and the Division Bench was wrong in proceeding with the assumption that only the non-execution of lease deed was the basic issue. Even if it is accepted that the other claims were relatable to it they have independent existence. Whether the collection of amounts by the respondent was for a period beyond 51 years needs evidence to be adduced. It is not a case where the suit from statement in the plaint can be said to be barred by law. The statement in the plaint without addition or subtraction must show that it is barred by any law to attract application of Order VII Rule 11. This is not so in the present case.