Limitation Period for Applications in Specified Cases
The Third Division of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963 prescribes limitation for applications. Part I contains specified applications under Articles 118 to 136, while Article 137 is the residuary provision for other applications for which no period is provided elsewhere in that Division.
Articles 118 to 137: limitation periods for applications
The table below follows the Central text of the Schedule. Special or local laws may prescribe a different period, and Section 29 of the Limitation Act may affect how the Act applies to such proceedings.
| Article | Application | Period | Time begins to run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 118 | Leave to appear and defend a suit under summary procedure. | 10 days | When the summons is served. |
| 119 | Under the Arbitration Act, 1940: (a) filing in court of an award; (b) setting aside an award or getting it remitted for reconsideration. | 30 days | (a) Service of notice of making of the award; (b) service of notice of filing of the award. |
| 120 | Under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to make the legal representative of a deceased plaintiff, appellant, defendant or respondent a party. | 90 days | Date of death of the person concerned. |
| 121 | Under the CPC, for an order to set aside an abatement. | 60 days | Date of abatement. |
| 122 | Restore a suit, appeal, review or revision application dismissed for default, want of prosecution, failure to pay process costs, or failure to furnish security for costs. | 30 days | Date of dismissal. |
| 123 | Set aside an ex parte decree or rehear an appeal decreed or heard ex parte. | 30 days | Date of decree; if summons or notice was not duly served, when the applicant had knowledge of the decree. |
| 124 | Review of judgment by a court other than the Supreme Court. | 30 days | Date of decree or order. |
| 125 | Record an adjustment or satisfaction of a decree. | 30 days | When payment or adjustment is made. |
| 126 | Payment of the amount of a decree by instalments. | 30 days | Date of decree. |
| 127 | Set aside a sale in execution of a decree, including an application by a judgment-debtor. | 60 days | Date of sale. |
| 128 | Possession by a person dispossessed of immovable property who disputes the right of the decree-holder or purchaser at an execution sale. | 30 days | Date of dispossession. |
| 129 | Possession after removing resistance or obstruction to delivery of possession of immovable property decreed or sold in execution. | 30 days | Date of resistance or obstruction. |
| 130 | Leave to appeal as a pauper: (a) to the High Court; (b) to any other court. | (a) 60 days; (b) 30 days | Date of decree appealed from. |
| 131 | Application to a court for exercise of revisional powers referred to in Article 131. | 90 days | Date of decree, order or sentence sought to be revised. |
| 132 | Application to the High Court for a certificate of fitness to appeal to the Supreme Court under the constitutional provisions or other law referred to in Article 132. | 60 days | Date of decree, order or sentence. |
| 133 | Special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court: (a) case involving death sentence; (b) leave to appeal refused by High Court; (c) any other case. | (a) 60 days; (b) 60 days; (c) 90 days | (a) Date of judgment, final order or sentence; (b) date of refusal; (c) date of judgment or order. |
| 134 | Delivery of possession by purchaser of immovable property at a sale in execution of a decree. | 1 year | When the sale becomes absolute. |
| 135 | Enforcement of a decree granting a mandatory injunction. | 3 years | Date of decree, or where a date is fixed for performance, that date. |
| 136 | Execution of any decree, other than a decree granting a mandatory injunction, or order of a civil court. | 12 years | When the decree or order becomes enforceable, subject to the terms of Article 136. Enforcement or execution of a decree granting a perpetual injunction has no prescribed limitation under its proviso. |
| 137 | Any other application for which no period is provided elsewhere in the Third Division. | 3 years | When the right to apply accrues. |
Important current-law notes
Article 119 and the Arbitration Act, 1940
Article 119 remains printed in the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963, but it expressly refers to the Arbitration Act, 1940. For proceedings governed by later arbitration legislation, the applicable statute and its own limitation provisions must be checked rather than assuming Article 119 governs.
Article 127 now provides 60 days
The current Central text prescribes 60 days for an application to set aside a sale in execution of a decree. Older reproductions showing 30 days are outdated.
Article 131 contains an old statutory reference
The Schedule still reproduces Article 131 with a reference to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. For a present-day criminal revision, the current procedural statute and any applicable special provision should be checked. The table above therefore does not present the old 1898 Code as the current criminal procedure law.
Computation and extension of limitation
Sections 4 to 24 contain important rules affecting computation. Among them, Section 5 permits delayed appeals and applications, other than applications under Order XXI of the CPC, to be admitted where sufficient cause is shown. Section 12 deals with exclusion of specified time in legal proceedings, and Section 14 addresses exclusion of time spent bona fide in proceedings before a court unable to entertain the matter because of jurisdictional defect or a cause of like nature.