(1)Subject to the provisions contained in sections 4 to 24 (inclusive), every suit instituted, appeal preferred, and application made after the prescribed period shall be dismissed, although limitation has not been set up as a defence.
(2)For the purposes of this Act,—
(a)a suit is instituted,—
(i)in an ordinary case, when the plaint is presented to the proper officer;
(ii)in the case of a pauper, when his application for leave to sue as a pauper is made; and
(iii)in the case of a claim against a company which is being wound up by the court, when the claimant first sends in his claim to the official liquidator;
(b)any claim by way of a set off or a counter claim, shall be treated as a separate suit and shall be deemed to have been instituted—
(i)in the case of a set off, on the same date as the suit in which the set off is pleaded;
(ii)in the case of a counter claim, on the date on which the counter claim is made in court;
(c)an application by notice of motion in a High Court is made when the application is presented to the proper officer of that court.