SHORT NOTES ON LIMITATION ACT 1963 PART 1

S 2 Definitions:-

f) Easement includes a right not arising from contract, by which one person is entitled to remove and appropriate for his own profit any part of soil belonging to another or anything growing in or attached to,or subsisting upon the land of another;

h) Good faith- Nothing shall be deemed to be done in good faith which is not done with due care and attention;

m) Tort -It means a civil wrong which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of a trust;

S 3. Bar of limitation:-

Sub S 1- Every suit instituted,appeal preferred and application made after prescribed period shall be dismissed, although limitation has not been set up as defence.

Sub S 2- For the purposes of this Act:-

a) A suit is instituted

1) when plaint is presented to proper officer;

2) in the case of pauper, when his application for leave to sue as a pauper is made;

b) Any claim by way of a set off,or a counter claim shall be treated as a separate suit and shall be deemed to have been instituted-

1) in the case of set off, on the date as the suit in which set off is pleaded;

2) in the case of counter claim, on the date on which counter claim is made in court;

S 4. Expiry of prescribed period when court is closed :- If prescribed period expires on day when court is closed, suit, appeal or application may be filed on the day when court re-opens.

S 5 Extension of prescribed period in certain cases:-

Any appeal or any application, other than an application under order 21 of CPC may be admitted after prescribed period, if the appellant or applicant satisfied the court that he had sufficient cause for not preferring the appeal or application within such period.

Important judgments on S 5 Limitation Act
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S 6 Legal disability:-

Sub S 1 :-Where a person entitled to institute a suit or make an application for execution of a decree is at the time from which prescribed period is to be reckoned, a minor or insane,or an idiot, he may institute suit or make application within the same period after disability has ceased as would otherwise have been allowed from the time specified in the third column of the schedule.

Sub S 2:- Such person affected by two such disabilities or where before his disability has ceased is affected by another disability, he may institute suit or make application within the same period after both disabilities has ceased as would otherwise have been allowed from the time so specified.

Sub S 3:- If Disability continues till his death, his legal representatives may file suit or application after his death within specified time.

Sub S 4:-If legal representatives are suffering from disability, they are also entitled to get same period for filing suit or application.

Sub S 5 :- If person under disability dies after disability ceased but within the period allowed to him under this section, his legal representatives will get same time as was available to deceased.

Explanation:- Minor includes child in the womb.

S 7. Disability of one of several persons:-

Where one of several persons jointly entitled to institute suit or make application for execution of decree is under any such disability, and a discharge can be given without concurrence of such person, time will run against them; all but, where no such discharge can be given,time will not run as against any of them until one of them becomes capable of giving such discharge without the concurrence of others or until disability has ceased.

Explanation 1 – This section applies to a discharge from every kind of liability, including a liability in respect of immovable property.

Explanation 2- For the purposes of this section, manager of a hindu undivided family governed by mitakshara law shall be deemed to be capable of giving a discharge without the concurrence of the other member of family only if he is in management of joint family property.

Section 8 in The Limitation Act, 1963

8. Special exceptions.— Nothing in section 6 or in section 7 applies to suits to enforce rights of pre-emption, or shall be deemed to extend, for more than three years from the cessation of the disability or the death of the person affected thereby, the period of limitation for any suit or application.

S 9 Continuous running of time-

Where once time has begun to run, no subsequent disability or inability to institute suit or make an application stops it.

S 12. Exclusion of time in legal proceeding.

The section may be analysed as follows:

1) In computing period of limitation prescribed for a suit, the date of accrual of cause of action is to be excluded.

2) In computing period of limitation prescribed for appeal ,or application for revision,review or leave to appeal, following period shall be excluded that is day on which judgment or order was passed and time required for obtaining copy of judgment,order or decree.

Explanation:- In computing time under this section,time required for obtaining copy of decree or order, any time taken by court to prepare decree or order before application for certified copy is made shall not excluded.

S 13 Exclusion of time in cases where leave to sue or appeal as a pauper is applied for:-

Application to sue as pauper is rejected, and permitted to pay court fees ,suit or appeal shall be deemed to have been instituted on the date when said application was filed.

S 14. Exclusion of time of proceeding bonafide in court without jurisdiction.
Important judgments on S 14 of limitation Act
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Requisites of S 14:- In order that this section may apply, the person claiming the benefit of it must have fulfilled all its conditions that is

1) the proceeding which he was prosecuting must have been a civil proceeding.

2) In the earlier civil proceeding all the defendants in the latter suit should have been parties.

3) The suit in which plaintiff claims the benefit of this rule must relate to same matter in issue as in the former civil proceeding.

4) The former civil proceeding must have been prosecuted with due diligence.

5) In prosecuting the earlier civil proceeding in the wrong court the plaintiffs must have acted in good faith.

6) The inability of the court in which earlier civil proceeding was instituted must have been due to want of jurisdiction or other cause of like nature.

7) The Expression “is unable to entertain” means is unable to go into the merits of the case.

8) The period which the rule permits to be excluded is :-

a) Date on which suit or application was filed.

b) Time during which earlier suit or application was pending.

c) Date on which proceeding was terminated,and

d) Period between decision of first court and disposal of appeal there- from provided latter was prosecuted in good faith.

  This section applies to suits and applications only and not to appeals. It is not necessary that plaintiff must have been prosecuting the previous proceeding as a plaintiff. He is entitled to a deduction of period of pendency of former suit in which he as defendant was urging the same claim as he afterwards prefers as plaintiff.

Read important judgment on law of limitation:
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