Indu Malhotra JUDGMENT
Indu Malhotra, J.
1. The present Civil Appeal has been filed to challenge the impugned Judgment and Order dated 19.10.2016 passed by a Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court, which affirmed the Order of the Trial Court, allowing the application filed by Defendant Nos. 2 and 3/Respondent Nos. 2 and 3 herein Under Order VII Rule 11(d), Code of Civil Procedure holding that the suit filed by the Appellant and Respondent Nos. 9 to 13 herein (hereinafter referred to as the "Plaintiffs") was barred by limitation.
2. The subject-matter of the present proceedings pertains to a plot of agricultural land of old tenure, admeasuring approximately 8701 sq. mtrs. in Revenue Survey No. 610, Block No. 573 situated in village Mota Varachha, Sub-District Surat (hereinafter referred to as the "suit property") which was in the ownership of the Plaintiffs.
3. The land was under restrictive tenure as per Section 73AA of the Land Revenue Code. The Plaintiffs filed an application dated 13.05.2008 before the Collector, Surat to obtain permission for selling the suit property to Respondent No. 1/Defendant No. 1, which was non-irrigated, and stated that they had no objection to the sale of the suit property.
4. The Collector vide Order dated 19.06.2009, after carrying out verification of the title of the Plaintiffs, permitted sale of the suit property, and fixed the sale price of the suit property as per the jantri issued by the State Government @ Rs. 2000/- per sq. mtr., which would work out to Rs. 1,74,02,000/-. The Collector granted permission for the sale subject to the terms and conditions contained in Section 73AA of the Land Revenue Code. It was stipulated that the purchaser shall make the payment by cheque, and reference of the payment shall be made in the Sale Deed.
5. After obtaining permission from the Collector, the Plaintiffs sold the suit property to Respondent No. 1 herein vide registered Sale Deed dated 02.07.2009.
Respondent No. 1 - purchaser issued 36 cheques for Rs. 1,74,02,000 towards payment of the sale consideration in favour of the Plaintiffs, the details of which were set out in the registered Sale Deed dated 02.07.2009.
6. The Respondent No. 1 subsequently sold the suit property to Respondent Nos. 2 and 3 herein vide registered Sale Deed dated 01.04.2013, for a sale consideration of Rs. 2,01,00,000/-.
7. On 15.12.2014, the Plaintiffs filed Special Civil Suit No. 718/2014 before the Principal Civil Judge, Surat against the original purchaser i.e. Respondent No. 1, and also impleaded the subsequent pu........