Exclude the first day

When counting any period of limitation for a suit, appeal or application, the day from which the period runs is excluded. For a 30-day appeal from a judgment given on 1 March, day one is 2 March. For appeals, leave applications and reviews, the day the judgment was pronounced is also expressly excluded.

For periods set by later Acts that count 'from' a date, the General Clauses Act gives the same result: the first day is excluded.

Exclude time taken for certified copies

For an appeal, an application for leave to appeal or a review, the time 'requisite' for obtaining a certified copy of the decree, sentence or order, and of the judgment it is founded on, is excluded. Only the time actually needed counts: from the date of applying for the copy to the date it is ready for delivery.

Delay before applying is not excluded, so apply on the day of judgment. Section 12 also reaches periods set by special laws, unless they exclude it (s.29(2)(a)), but several special laws run time from receipt or service of the order, so check the start point. The Appellate Division Rules give no such exclusion for leave petitions.

Court closed on the last day

If the period expires on a day when the court is closed (a weekly holiday, public holiday or vacation), the suit, appeal or application may be filed on the day the court reopens. This does not extend the period itself; it only moves the final day. Bangladesh courts are closed on Fridays and Saturdays and on public holidays.

Other statutory deadlines on a closed day

For acts under later Acts of Parliament that must be done in a court or office within a set period, and to which the Limitation Act does not apply, the General Clauses Act gives the same rule: if the office is closed on the last day, the act is in time if done on the next day it is open.

Late appeals and applications: sufficient cause

An appeal or an application for revision, review or leave to appeal may be admitted after the period if the applicant satisfies the court that there was sufficient cause for the delay. Every day of delay must be explained, usually on affidavit.

Section 5 never applies to suits: a suit filed after the period must be dismissed, even if limitation is not raised as a defence.

Special laws: condonation only if the law allows it

Where a special or local law sets its own period (for example the Arbitration Act, the Artha Rin Adalat Ain or the tax statutes), sections 4, 9 to 18 and 22 of the Limitation Act apply unless expressly excluded, but section 5 and the other provisions do not apply unless the special law applies them.

Some Acts give their own extension (income tax, VAT, customs, Administrative Appellate Tribunal, Land Survey Tribunal, Family Appellate Court, right to information); others exclude it expressly (vested property) or say nothing, in which case s.5 does not apply (arbitration, Artha Rin, Nari-o-Shishu). Treat special-law periods as strict.

Minors and persons of unsound mind

If the person entitled to sue is a minor or of unsound mind when time would start, the same period runs from when the disability ends. The extension cannot exceed three years from the end of the disability (or from death), and does not apply to pre-emption suits. A disability arising after time has started does not stop the clock.

Once time starts, it keeps running

Once the period has begun, no later disability or inability to sue stops it. For example, the claimant falling ill or leaving Bangladesh does not pause the period. The defendant's absence from Bangladesh, however, is excluded for suits.

Time spent in the wrong court

Time spent prosecuting another civil proceeding with due diligence and in good faith, on the same cause of action against the same party, in a court that could not entertain it for want of jurisdiction or a similar defect, is excluded. Both the first and last days of the earlier proceeding are counted in the exclusion.

Acknowledgment and part-payment

A written, signed acknowledgment of liability made before the period expires starts a fresh period from the date of signature. A payment on account of a debt, acknowledged in writing by the payer, has the same effect. An acknowledgment after expiry does not revive a barred claim, although it may support a fresh contract under s.25 Contract Act.

Fraud, stays and statutory notices

Where fraud kept a person from knowing of the right, time runs from discovery of the fraud. Time during which a suit or execution was stayed by injunction, and the period of any statutory notice that must precede a suit (such as the two-month notice under s.80 CPC), are excluded.

Months and years are calendar months and years

Periods in months or years are counted by the Gregorian calendar: a period of three months from 15 January ends on 15 April. A period of 90 days is not the same as three months, so use the unit the statute uses. Working days exclude weekly and public holidays.