“An application under Order 7, Rule 11 can be filed at any stage. The only restriction is that the consideration of the application for rejection should not be on the basis of the allegations made in the written statement or on the basis of the allegations in the application for rejection of the plaint. Court has to consider only the plaint as a whole, and in case, the entire plaint comes under the situations covered by Order 7, Rule 11 (a) to (f) the same has to be rejected. Once an application is filed under Order 7, Rule 11 Court has to dispose of the same before proceeding with the trial. There is no point or sense in proceeding with the trial of the case, in case the plaint is only to be rejected at the threshold.

However, we may hasten to add that the liberty to file an application for rejection under Order 7, Rule 11 of the CPC cannot be made as a ruse for retrieving the lost opportunity to file the written statement.”

– Hon’ble Justice Kurian Joseph, R.K. Roja v. U.S. Rayadu, [Civil Appeal No. 5540 of 2016].