Report No. 193
Brief History of the Indian Limitation statutes:
The Third Report of the Law Commission of India on 'Limitation Act, 1908' (1956) resulted in the repeal of the Limitation Act of 1908 and in the enactment of the present Act of 1963 which came into force w.e.f. 1.1.1964. Going back into history briefly, we may state that before the year 1862, there was no law of limitation applicable to the whole of India. The English law of limitation, as contained in 21 James I C and 4 Anne c 16(1) was adopted when the British established the Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta.
So far as the Provincial Courts were concerned, they were initially governed by certain Regulations like the Bengal Regulation III (1793), which was extended to certain other provinces by Regulation VII (1795), Regulation II (1803) and Regulation II, 1805; the Regulation II of 1802 applied to Madras and Regulation I of 1800 and Regulation V of 1827 applied to Bombay. They were replaced by the Limitation Act I of 1845, then by Act XIII of 1848 and Act XI of 1859.
Then in 1871, the Limitation Act IX of 1871 was passed providing for the limitation of suits, appeals and certain applications to Courts and also providing for the acquisition of easements and the extinguishment of rights to land and hereditary offices. The Act IX of 1871 was replaced by Act XV of 1877 which provided for the extinguishment of rights not only to land and hereditary offices but also to any property including moveable property. It also defined 'easement' as including 'profits a prendre'. That Act was replaced by the Act of 1908. The 1908 Act was amended from time to time.
The Third Report of the Law Commission of India resulted, as stated earlier, in the present Limitation Act of 1963, repealing the Act of 1908. Prescription, acquisition and barring of remedies: In the Law of Limitation, there are generally three distinct concepts, namely, prescription, acquisition and barring of judicial remedies.
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