In Brief
A property owner sued for possession and declaration of ownership. The trial court rejected the respondent's request to decide certain issues (regarding civil death from religious initiation, jurisdiction, and cause of action) as preliminary legal questions, ruling they involved mixed fact and law requiring evidence. The High Court reversed this, directing the trial court to decide these maintainability issues as preliminary legal questions. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's approach, finding such issues were matters of law determinable from documents and admissions, not requiring trial evidence. However, the Court set aside prejudicial observations made by the High Court and directed the trial court to decide the case on merits uninfluenced by those remarks.</summary_100> <parameter name="cited_cases">[]
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