Limitation Period Checker
Check the limitation period for a suit, appeal or application under the Limitation Act, 1963, and see how many days remain from the date time began to run.
Choose the date time began to run to see your deadline.
How this is worked out
Periods are taken from the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963. Each head below names the Article it comes from and the event time runs from. Periods expressed in years are counted as calendar years from the starting date, which is how courts compute them.
- The starting date is the crux, and this tool takes it from you rather than determining it. If the date time began to run is wrong, so is the deadline.
- Section 12 excludes the time requisite for obtaining a certified copy of the decree or order when computing the period for an appeal — so an appeal may still be in time even where this page shows it as expired.
- An acknowledgement of liability in writing (Section 18) or a part payment (Section 19) can start a fresh period running from the date of that acknowledgement.
- Delay in an appeal or application may be condoned under Section 5 for sufficient cause. That is not available for suits.
- Where the last day falls on a court holiday, Section 4 allows filing on the day the court reopens.
This is an estimate for orientation, not a computation you can file on. Rates, exemptions and statutory periods change, and the figure that applies to your matter depends on facts this page cannot know. Confirm it with the chamber before you act on it.
Questions
The suit or appeal is liable to be dismissed as barred by limitation, and the court is bound to take the point even if the other side does not raise it. Section 5 of the Limitation Act allows delay in appeals and applications (not ordinarily in suits) to be condoned where sufficient cause is shown — but that is a discretion to be earned on affidavit, not a right.
This is the question that decides most limitation disputes, and it is the one a calculator cannot answer. The starting point differs by the nature of the claim: the date a debt fell due, the date possession became adverse, the date you learned of a fraud, the date of the decree. Getting the starting date wrong makes every calculation downstream of it wrong.
It can be interrupted or extended in defined situations — a fresh acknowledgement of liability in writing signed by the debtor starts time afresh under Section 18, a part payment can have the same effect under Section 19, and time during which the plaintiff was under a legal disability or was prosecuting proceedings in a wrong court in good faith may be excluded.
Yes. Section 12 excludes the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the decree or order appealed from. This routinely gives an appellant more working time than the bare period suggests, but only the time genuinely requisite is excluded — not delay in applying for the copy in the first place.
Need the real figure, not an estimate?
Bring your papers to the chamber and get the number that actually applies — along with what to do about it.