GIRJAPRASAD SUNDERLAL AGRAWAL Vs. MOTIBHAI FULABHAI PATEL & CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On the plain reading of plaint its' self, it is clear that the suit is time barred. The suit is filed on 7-7.-1970 for the amount which became due in the year 1962 and 1963. When the goods are supplied and the payments are required to be received, the correct system is that whenever the payment is made that payment is to be received for the amount for which the goods are sent and . the amount is due on the previous date. Therefore, whenever the amounts are paid, they are to be adjusted on the goods supplied on the previous occasions. As a result, ultimately, the last items would remain and those items would be the items for which the amounts remained due. Now, therefore, all the payments which are made in different years are required to be adjusted to wards the amounts which became due on previous dates, and if one adjusts the accounts in that particular fashion, it is clear that when a suit is filed for a particular amount, the last items which became due are the items already stated. It is an admitted position that the goods were supplied by the respondents-original plaintiffs to the appellants-defendants on 24-1-63, that is, the last item. Now, therefore, in any case for that item suit was required to be filed within three years from that date unless it is established that within the period of limitation there was an acknowledgement. That is not established in this case. The suit, therefore, is clearly time-barred.

(2.) Now in this case, the learned Advocate Shri Patel suggested that Article I of the Limitation Act would apply. This Article corresponds to Article 85 of the Old Act. There is no question of reciprocal demands and one-sided payment is never sufficient. Whenever the payment is made, the payment is to be adjusted towards the amounts which became due first. The Article, hence, which would govern this case is Article 14. Section 19 of the Limitation Act speaks about the payment on account of debt and it lays down that a fresh period of limitation shall be computed from the time when the payment is made. This aspect has already been discussed in earlier paragraph.