Limitation triggered by specific statutory event means only that event counts; election petition filed after expiry was time-barred.

Section 33(1) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 fixes limitation for an election petition by reference only to the date on which the Section 28(k) list is made available for sale or inspection. The Court held that other statutory events, including those in Sections 10 and 32, could not be imported into the limitation trigger. On the evidence, the list was available on 17.02.2012, so the ten-day period expired on 27.02.2012. The petition filed on 28.02.2012 was therefore time-barred, and no provision allowed condonation of delay.

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Issues: Whether the election petition filed under Section 33(1) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 was within limitation, and whether the limitation period had to be computed from the date the list under Section 28(k) was made available for sale or inspection.

Analysis: Section 33(1) expressly links the commencement of limitation to the date on which the list prescribed under Section 28(k) is available for sale or inspection. The list prepared after counting on 17.02.2012 satisfied Section 28(k), and the evidence showed that it was available for inspection and sale on that date. The Court held that Section 33(1) could not be read with Sections 10 and 32 for fixing limitation, because the legislature had confined the trigger solely to Section 28(k). On that construction, the ten-day period began on 17.02.2012 and expired on 27.02.2012. The petition filed on 28.02.2012 was therefore beyond time, and no provision enabled condonation of delay.

Conclusion: The election petition was barred by limitation and ought to have been dismissed.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, the finding of limitation recorded by the courts below was set aside, and the election petition was dismissed as time-barred.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute of limitation fixes the starting point by reference to a specific event, the court must give effect to that express trigger alone and cannot import other statutory events not mentioned in the provision.

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