Like exclusion in case of order under Civil Procedure Code, section 20 Exclusion of time during which commencement of suit is stayed by in- Exclusion of time during which judgment-debtor is attempting to set aside execution-sale . Effect of death before right to sue accrues Effect of fraud Effect of acknowledgment in writing Effect of payment of interest as such Effect of part-payment of principal. SECTION 14 ib. . 15 16 17 18 19 20 ib. ib. Effect of receipt of produce of mortgaged land. One of several joint contractors etc. not chargeable by reason of acknow ledgment or payment made by another of them Effect of substituting or adding new plaintiff or defendant Proviso where original plaintiff dies Proviso where original defendant dies Continuing breaches and wrongs Suit for compensation for act not actionable without special damages SECOND SCHEDULE.-I. Suits. II. Appeals. III. Applications. 21 22 ib. ib. 23 24 25 26 27 28 Act No. XV OF 1877. AS AMENDED BY ACTS XII OF 1879, VIII OF 1880, IX OF 1887, PASSED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF (Act No. XV of 1877 received the assent of the Governor-General on the 19th of July, 1877: Act No. XII of 1879 received it on the 29th of July, 1879: Act No. VIII of 1880 received it on the 12th of March, 1880: Act XI of 1887 received it on the 24th February, 1887; and Act VII of 1888 received it on the 23rd March, 1888.) An Act for the Limitation of Suits and for other purposes. WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to the Preamble. limitation of suits, appeals and certain applications1 to Courts; and whereas it is also expedient to provide rules for acquiring Not all applications, e. g. applications for certificates of sale (6 Bom. 586); for certificates to collect debts due to the estate of a deceased person (8 Mad. 207); for probate and letters of administration (7 Bom. 213: 6 Cal. 707): for permission to sue as a pauper (7 Bom. 375): by an attorney that a client should show cause why he should not pay a balance due for costs, I Bom. 253; and see 6 Cal. 60. The provisions of this Act as to applications apply to applications for the exercise, by the authority applied From the circumstance that this by possession the ownership of easements and other property ; It is hereby enacted as follows: PART I. Short title. Extent of Act. Commence- Repeal of References PRELIMINARY. 1. This Act may be called 'The Indian Limitation Act, 1877: ' It extends to the whole of British India1; but nothing contained in sections 2 and 3 or in Parts II and III applies— (a) to suits under the Indian Divorce Act 2, or (b) to suits under Madras Regulation VI of 18313; and it shall come into force on the first day of October, 1877. 2. On and from that day, the Acts mentioned in the first schedule hereto annexed shall be repealed to the extent therein specified. But all references to the Indian Limitation Act, 1871, to Act IX shall be read as if made to this Act; and nothing herein or in of 1871. of titles Saving that Act contained shall be deemed to affect any title acand of Act quired, or to revive any right to sue 5 barred 6, under that IX of 1872, Act or under any enactment thereby repealed; and nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect the Indian Contract Act, section 25. sec. 25. Suits for which Notwithstanding anything herein contained, any suit period pre- mentioned in No. 146 of the second schedule hereto annexed scribed by may be brought within five years next after the said first day 1 Outside British India the Limitation Act is in force in the Haidarábád Assigned Districts, the civil and military station of Bangalore, the cantonments of Sikandarábád, Dísah, and Abu: in the lands in Native States occupied by the following railways: the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (Kurundwar), the Madras Railway (Mysore), the Nágpúr and Chhattisgarh State Railway (Khairagarh and Nundgaon), and the Rájputána Malwa State Railway; in the jágír territories of the State of Játh; Mysore; the head-works of the Bhawalwah - Lodran Canal (Bhawalpur Territory): see shorter than that by Act IX of October, 1877, unless where the period prescribed for such this Act is suit by the said Indian Limitation Act, 1871, shall have expired before the completion of the said five years; and any prescribed other suit for which the period of limitation prescribed by of 1871. this Act is shorter than the period of limitation prescribed by the said Indian Limitation Act, 1871, may be brought within two years next after the said first day of October, 1877,unless where the period prescribed for such suit by the same Act shall have expired before the completion of the said two years 1. 3. In this Act, unless there be something repugnant in the Interpretasubject or context 'plaintiff' includes also any person from or through whom a plaintiff derives his right to sue; 'applicant' includes also any person from or through whom an applicant derives his right to apply 2; and 'defendant' includes also any person from or through whom a defendant derives his liability to be sued : ' easement' includes also a right, not arising from contract, by which one person is entitled to remove and appropriate for his own profit any part of the soil belonging to another, or anything growing in, or attached to, or subsisting upon, the land of another 3: 'bill of exchange' includes also a hundí and a cheque : 'bond' includes any instrument whereby a person obliges himself to pay money to another, on condition that the obligation shall be void if a specified act is performed, or is not performed, as the case may be1: 1 Acts of limitation, like other laws relating to procedure, apply immediately to all steps taken after they have come into force, except when some provision is made to the contrary. Every one seeking the aid of a Court seeks it on the terms from time to time imposed by the legislature. He has not the privilege of making any application in any way and at any time. Other interests than his are at stake; and the Courts are not to exercise their coercive power at his request over another person, except under such regulations as shall make their action compatible with 2 As to the title of purchasers at an 20. 3 This definition (which in Madras, the Central Provinces, and Coorg is repealed and re-enacted by Act V of 1882, sec. 3) includes what English lawyers call a profit à prendre, 5 Cal. 945, e. g. a prescriptive right to take fish out of water covering another's land. * See infra, arts. 66, 67, 68, 74, 75, 80. tion-clause, 'promissory note' means any instrument whereby the maker engages absolutely to pay a specified sum of money to another at a time therein limited, or on demand, or at sight: 'trustee' does not include a benámídár 2, a mortgagee remaining in possession after the mortgage has been satisfied 3, or a wrong-doer in possession without title *: 'suit' does not include an appeal or an application : 'registered' means duly registered in British India under the law for the registration of documents in force at the time and place of executing the document, or signing the decree or order referred to in the context: 'foreign country' means any country other than British India; and nothing shall be deemed to be done in 'good faith' which is not done with due care and attention ". Dismissal of suits, PART II. LIMITATION OF SUITS, APPEALS AND APPLICATIONS. 4. Subject to the provisions contained in sections 5 to 25 etc. insti- (inclusive) 7, every suit instituted, appeal presented, and applituted etc., cation made, after the period of limitation prescribed thereafter period for by the second schedule hereto annexed, shall be dismissed, although limitation has not been set up as a defence 10. of limit ation. 1 See sec. 10 infra. 2 2 Ben. A. C. 284. 3 Ben. F. B. 901. See cases in Darby and B. 183, 184. * See the Registration Act, infra. See secs. 14 and 18. The clause is taken from the Penal Code, sec. 52, supra, vol. I. p. 103. 7 and applicable to the particular case, I All. 646. The burden of proving the circumstances here referred to is on the plaintiff, 24 Suth. Civ. R. 182. As to applications for leave to appeal to Her Majesty in Council, see I All. 644. 9 10 Cal. 658: 6 Mad. 326. But see 6 Bom. 103, 107, where the Court allowed the plaintiff to withdraw his suit in order to proceed in a foreign Court. As to costs see 6 Mad. 178, and Boatwright v. Boatwright, L. R., 17 Eq. 71. 10 The effect of section 4 is this: Whenever a case is properly before a Court, whether of appeal or of first instance, the Court is bound to take notice of the question of limitation: but in order to enable the Appellate Court to do that, the case must be, in its entirety, before it, 9 Cal. 637. In India limitation need not be set up as a defence, while in England the |