- (1.) ONE of our colleagues, sitting singly, has made the following reference for our opinion: - "whether or not the provisions of the Limitation Act of 1963 are applicable to all the proceedings including revisions under Sec. 84 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, after the repeal of the Limitation Act of 1908. "
(2.) THE powers of Revision of the Board of Revenue under sec. 84 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956, are identical with the powers of the High Court under sec. 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure. THE Indian Limitation Act of 1908 did not provide any period of limitation for applications for revision. However, in the Limitation Act of 1963, Article 131 provides that applications for revision under the Code of Civil Procedure or under the Criminal Procedure Code must be made within ninety days. The Rajasthan Land Revenue Act is a local and special law. It sets out specific periods of limitation for different purposes. For instance, in sec. 65 it prescribes the period of limitation for having an exparte order set aside. In sec. 78 it sets out the periods of limitation for review has been laid down. Lastly, there is sec. 87, which is reproduced below - "87. Application of Act IX of 1908.- The provisions of the Indian Limitation Act, 1908 (Central Act IX of 1908), shall apply to all appeals and applications for review under this Act. " The question that arises for determination is whether the reference to sec. 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act should be deemed to be a reference to the Indian Limitation Act, 1963 which has repealed it. The preamble to the Indian Limitation Act, 1963 says that it is an Act to consolidate and amend the law for the limitation of suits and other proceedings and for purposes connected therewith. Sec. 32 of the new Act repeals the Limitation Act of 1908. In support of the proposition that the reference to the Limitation Act. of 1908 in sec. 87 of the Raj. Land Revenue Act remains unaffected by the new Limitation Act of 1963,the authority cited is AIR 1931 P. C. 149. The question before their Lordships of" the P. C. was whether an appeal lay to them against an order of the Tribunal set up under the Calcutta Improvement Act 1911. Reliance for the maintainability of the appeal was placed on an amendment of the Land Acquisition Act which was a Central Act. By this amendment every award of the Court under that Act was to be deemed to be a decree. Under the Calcutta Improvement Act 1911, the special Tribunal acted in lieu of the Court. The argument was that the amended provisions of the Land Acquisition Act should be read into the City Improvement Act. Their Lordships found that this was quite contrary to the clear provisions of the Calcutta Improvement Act which was a special and local law. They observed that where certain provisions from an existing Act have been incorporated into a subsequent Act, no addition to the former Act, which is not expressly made applicable to the subsequent Act, can be deemed to be incorporated in it, at all events if it is possible for the subsequent Act to function effectually without the addition. This ruling is opposite to the circumstances of the case before their Lordships and is not applicable to the present case. On the other hand, there is a decision of the Supreme Court which is directly applicable. It is A. I. R. 1960 Supreme Court 569. In that case, it was held that references in the United Provinces Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1947, to the Factries Act, 1934, must by virtue of Sec. 8 of the General Clauses Act (Central) be construed as references to the provisions of the Factories Act 1948 which repealed the Factories Act, 1934, and re-enacted it. In the present case, the Indian Limitation Act, 1908, has been repealed and the subject matter of the Act re-enacted in the Limitation Act of 1963. Therefore, the references in sec 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 to the Indian Limitation Act 1908 must be deemed to refer to the Indian Limitation Act of 1963, since no contrary intention appears. Now the question is whether by reading into sec. 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, the provisions of the Indian Limitation Act of 1963, the conclusion can be drawn that the provisions of Article 131 of the new Limitation Act prescribing a period of limitation for revisions apply to revisions under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act. The language of sec. 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act has been reproduced earlier. It leaves no room for doubt that the provisions of this section clearly exclude the application of Article 131 of the new Limitation Act of 1963 to proceedings other than appeals and applications for review. Therefore, the provisions of the new Limitation Act of 1963 do not apply to applications for revision in proceedings under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act. As has been noticed earlier, the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act is a special and local law. For certain purposes it prescribes specific periods of limitation in various sections and in sec. 87 it applies the provisions of the Limitation Act to appeals and applications for review. Being a special enactment which embodies self-contained provisions with regard to the periods of limitation and which specifically excludes the applications of the Limitation Act, which is a general Act, in the matter of applications for revision, it must be deemed to be unaffected by the amendment in the new Limitation Act by which a period of limitation has been prescribed for applications for revision under the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The reference may, therefore, he answered as follows: (1) The provisions of the Limitation Act of 1963 are applicable to proceedings under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956, only to the extent to which these have been made applicable by the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act itself. (2) The provisions for the general law of limitation as embodied in the Indian Limitation Act of 1963 would be deemed to be substituted for the repealed provisions of the Indian Limitation Act of 1908 for the purposes of sec. 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956. (3) By the) special provisions of sec. 87 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, the general provisions of the Indian Limitation Act of 1963 are not applicable to applications for revision under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956. . ;