- (1.) - Availability of the plea of the limitation in the matter of execution of decree has been the key issue in this appeal. The word 'execution' stands derived from the Latin 'ex seque' meaning, to follow out follow to the end, or perform and equivalent to the French 'executor', so that when used in their proper sense, all three convey the meaning of carrying out some act or course of conduct to its completion (vide vol.33 -- Corpus Juris Secundum).
(2.) Lord Denning in Re Overseas Aviation Engineering (G.B.) Ltd., LR 1963 : Ch. 24 has attributed a meaning to the word execution as the process for enforcing or giving effect to the judgment of the Court and stated : "The word "execution" is not defined in the Act. It is, of course, a word familiar to lawyers. "Execution" means, quite simply, the process for enforcing or giving effect to the judgment of the Court : and it is completed when the judgment creditor gets the money or other thing awarded to him by the judgment. That this is the meaning is seen by reference to that valuable old book Rastill Termes de la Ley, where it is stated : "Execution is where Judgment is given in any Action, that the plaintiff shall" recover the land, debt, or damages, as the case is : and when any "Writ is awarded to put him in Possession, or to do any other" thing whereby the plaintiff should be the better be satisfied his debt "or damages, that is called a writ of execution; and when he hath the possession of the land, or is paid the debt or damages or" hath the body of the defendant awarded to prison, then he hath "execution." And the same meaning is to be found in Blackman v. Fysh (1892) 3 Ch 209, 217 (CA), when Kekewich, J. said that execution means the "process of law for the enforcement of a judgment creditor's right "and in order to give effect to that right." In cases when execution was had by means of a common law writ, such as fieri facias or elegit, it was legal execution : when it was had by means of an equitable remedy, such as the appointment of a receiver, then it was equitable execution. But in either case it was "execution" because it was the process for enforcing or giving effect to the judgment of the Court."
(3.) Before, adverting to the factual aspect of the matter, a brief re-capitulation of the various periods of limitation as prescribed under the Limitation Act as engrafted in the Statute Book from time to time would be convenient. Law of Limitation in India, as a matter of fact, was introduced for the first time in 1859 being revised in 1871. 1877 and it is only thereafter, the Limitation Act of 1908 was enacted and was in force for more than half century till replaced by the present Act of 1963 (see in this context B.B.Mitra : the Limitation Act 20th Ed.);