TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1979 (3) TMI 208
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....orce immediately before the appointed day (20th December, 1961) in Goa, Daman and Diu or any part thereof shall continue to be in force therein until amended or repealed by a competent Legislature or other competent authority. Section 5(2) enabled the Central Government, within two years from the appointed day, to make such adaptations and modifications, whether by way of repeal or amendment, as may be necessary or expedient for the purpose of facilitating application of any such law in relation to the administration of Goa, Daman and Diu as a Union Territory and for the purpose of bringing the provisions of any such law into accord with the provisions of the Constitution. Section 6 of the Act empowered the Central Government, by notification in the official Gazette, to extend with such restrictions or modifications, as it thinks fit, to Goa, Daman and Diu, any enactment which is in force in a State at the date of the notification. Before Goa, Daman and Diu became part of India, certain laws such as the Portuguese Civil Code, the Portuguese Civil Procedure Code etc. were in force in those Territories. Apart from dealing with multiple other matters, the Portuguese Civil Code contai....
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....on Act, 1908. Section 29 contains `savings' clauses and Section 29(2) which particularly saves `special and local laws' is in these terms : "29(2) Where any special or local law prescribes for any suit, appeal or application a period of limitation different from the period prescribed by the Schedule, the provisions of section 3 shall apply as if such period were the period prescribed by the Schedule and for the purpose of determining any period of limitation prescribed for any suit, appeal or application by any special or local law, the provisions contained in sections 4 to 24 (inclusive) shall apply in so far as, and to the extent to which, they are not expressly excluded by such special or local law". The question which has arisen for consideration in these two appeals is whether the provisions of the Portuguese Civil Code relating to Limitation stand repealed by the Limitation Act, 1963, by necessary implication, or whether they are saved by Section 29(2) of that Act. Civil Appeal No. 1818 of 1969 arises out of a suit filed by the respondent-plaintiff against the appellant- defendant on 25th November, 1965, claiming damages for malicious prosecution. The pr....
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.... by Parliament namely the Limitation Act. It was further argued that the Portuguese Civil Code was a general law and not a local law and, therefore, the provisions contained in it relating to limitation were not saved under Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act. It was also contended that the words "where any special or local law prescribes for any suit, appeal or application" occurring in Section 29(2) indicated that Section 29(2) was confined in its application to odd Legislation dealing with particular types of suits and did not extend to a general law of Limitation like the Portuguese Civil Code. Shri Eduardo Falero and Shri Tambwekar, learned Counsel for the respondents urged that the Portuguese Civil Code which was applicable to the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu only and not the whole of India was a local law, and, therefore, the provisions contained in it relating to limitation were saved by Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963. The relevant provisions of the Portuguese Civil Code having been expressly saved, no question of any repugnancy between those provisions and those of the Limitation Act arose. It was also urged that Parliament which made express....
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....sary to restate the well known principles. Without doubt the provisions of the Portuguese Civil Code, unless they are saved by Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act, are repugnant to the provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963. If, howver, the provisions of the Portuguese Civil Code are saved by Section 29(2) then there can be no question of any repugnancy. Section 29(2) declares that the period of limitation prescribed by any special or local law shall apply as if such period was prescribed by the Schedule to the Limitation Act. In other words it is as if the special or local law is incorporated into the Limitation Act and the Schedule to the Limitation Act is amended, mutatis mutandis, by the special or local law. Therefore, to say that the provisions of a special or local law which by the necessary implication of Section 29(2) are read into the Limitation Act are contrary to the provisions of the Limitation Act, is merely to argue in a vicious circle, to end where one begins. So the question whether the provisions of the Portuguese Civil Code are void on the ground that they are repugnant to the provisions of the Limitation Act depends on the question whether the Portuguese Civil C....
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....e entire Code is concerned, because it is a general law laying down procedure, generally, for the trial of criminal cases. But the specific question with which we are here concerned is whether the provision contained in s. 417(4) of the Code is a special law. The whole Code is indeed a general law regulating the procedure in criminal trials generally, but it may contain provisions specifying a bar of time for particular class of cases which are of a special character. For example, a Land Revenue Code may be a general law regulating the relationship between the revenuepayer and the revenue-receiver or the rent-payer and the rentreceiver. It is a general law in the sense that it lays down the general rule governing such relationship, but it may contain special provision relating to bar of time, in specified cases, different from the general law of limitation. Such a law will be a 'special law' with reference to the law generally governing the subject-matter of that kind of relationship. A 'special law', therefore, means a law enacted for special cases, in special circumstances, in contradistinction to the general rules of the law laid down, as applicable generally to ....