(1) Subject to the provisions contained in sections 4 to 24 (inclusive), every suit instituted, appeal preferred, and application made after the prescribed period shall be dismissed, although limitation has not been set up as a defence.
(2) For the purposes of this Act,—
(a) a suit is instituted—
(i) in an ordinary case, when the plaint is presented to the proper officer;
(ii) in the case of a pauper, when his application for leave to sue as a pauper is made; and
(iii) in the case of a claim against a company which is being wound up by the court, when the claimant first sends in his claim to the official liquidator;
(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—
(i) in the case of a set off, on the same date as the suit in which the set off is pleaded;
(ii) in the case of a counter claim, on the date on which the counter claim is made in court;
(c) an application by notice of motion in a High Court is made when the application is presented to the proper officer of that court.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 3
Section 3 of the Limitation Act, 1963 establishes the fundamental statutory rule of limitation, mandating that courts shall dismiss every suit, appeal, or application instituted after the prescribed period, even if limitation has not been set up as a defence.
The duty cast on the court is peremptory and jurisdictional: a court lacks legal authority to entertain a time-barred proceeding unless a statutory saving or condonation provision applies.
Sub-section (2) defines the precise moment of institution: for ordinary suits, when the plaint is presented to the proper officer; for suits by indigent persons (paupers), when leave to sue is applied for; in claims against companies being wound up, when the claim is sent to the official liquidator; and in cases of set-off or counter-claim, on the date on which they are pleaded in court or instituted, respectively.
Section 3 bars the judicial remedy, not the underlying substantive right (except in cases governed by Section 27). Waiver of limitation by consent or estoppel is legally impossible, as statutory limitation is a matter of public policy (*interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium*). Even if the defendant concedes liability or fails to appear, the court must satisfy itself that the suit is within time before decreeing the claim.