In Brief
The Supreme Court allowed an appeal by a property purchaser against a High Court order upholding the rejection of his suit. The trial court had dismissed the suit as barred by an earlier ex parte decree using Order VII, Rule 11 CPC. The Court held that res judicata cannot be decided at the preliminary stage when the plaint contains specific allegations of fraud, collusion, or jurisdictional defects in the earlier decree. Such enquiry requires in-depth examination of both decrees and cannot be determined merely from assertions in the application. The Court restored the suit for determination on merits.
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