TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1961 (4) TMI 117
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....t at Ajmer and a subtreasury at Beawar. Before accepting office he had, under the rules, to deposit Government promissory notes to the extent of Rs. 60,000 and also execute a Security Bond for a like amount with two sureties to cover any loss to the Government in these treasuries. He accordingly made the deposit, and a security bond was executed by him on February 27, 1940 with Seth Phool Chand-who is now the 7th appellant in the appeal and one Seth Kanwarlal Ranka who died even before the suit and was not impleaded in it. Thereupon Lal Chand Kothari was directed to take charge of the office as Treasurer and he did so on March 6, 1940. We are not concerned with the treasury at Ajmer, but only with that at Beawar. Lal Chand, at the time of his taking charge, executed a receipt headed " charge-report" and in it is recited that he had taken over from the previous incumbent (VI. L. Patni) the amount of cash which tallied with what had to be in the treasury according to the books. Nothing happened between 1940 and 1948 and the business at the treasury appeared to be proceeding regularly and according to the rules. It may be mentioned that there were the usual periodical checks and au....
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.... Art. 14 of the Consti- tution. It is this last plea that has led to the appeal being heard by this larger Bench. As regards the first point that the suit claim was not comprehended within the terms of the security bond, learned Counsel made three submissions: (1) In order to render the defendants liable, the loss sustained by the Government must be proved to have occured on or after March 6, 1940 on which date alone Lal Chand Kothari took charge of the treasury. Though loss to the extent set out in the plaint did occur at the treasury in Beawar, learned Counsel urged, the plain. tiff-respondent had not proved that it occurred after March 6, 1940. In other words, the argument was that there was no physical checking on March 6, 1940 when he took over and because of this one could not be certain whether it was a loss which had occurred during the period of the previous incumbent in office or could with certainty be attributed to the period subsequent to March 6, 1940. This argument was rejected by the courts below and, in our opinion, correctly. In the face of the receipt executed by Lal Chand Kothari it would not be open to him to contend that the recitals in it were not correct,....
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....a that art. 149 of the Limitation Act which fixes a period of 60 years for suits by the Government is unconstitutional as violating Art. 14 of the Constitution. It is urged that there is no rational basis for treating claims by Government differently from those of private individuals in the matter of the time within which they could be enforced by suit. Learned Counsel urged that statutes of limitation were statutes of repose and enacted to ensure that stale claims were not agitated, so that after a reasonable length of time people might proceed on the footing that they would not be held liable for possible claims against them. Basing himself on these principles, the argument of the learned Counsel was that for the purpose of agitating claims no distinction could be drawn between Government and private ' individuals and that on no rational basis could a legislation which permitted a longer period of limitation for claims by the State be sustained. It is, no doubt, true that Lord Kenyon described statutes of limitation as "Statutes of repose" (vide per Dallas, C. J. in Tolson v. Kaye (1822) 2 Brod. & B. 217, 223: 129 E.R. 1267, 126g) and Bramwell, B. as "Statutes of peace"....
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....n the one hand and private individuals on the other. First and foremost there is this feature that the Limitation Act, though a statute of repose and intended for quieting titles, and in that sense looks at the problem from the point of view of the defendant with a view to provide for him a security against stale claims, addresses itself at the same time also to the position of the plaintiff. Thus, for instance, where the plaintiff is under a legal disability to institute a suit by reason of his being a minor or being insane or an idiot, it makes provisions for. the extension of the period taking into account that disability. Similarly, public interest in a claim being protected is taken into account by s. 10 of the Act by providing that there shall be no period of limitation in the case of express trusts. It is not necessary to go into the details of these provisions but it is sufficient to state that the approach here is from the point of view of protecting the enforceability of claims which, if the ordinary rules applied, would become barred by limitation. It is in great part on this principle that it is said that subject to statutory provision, while the maxim vigilantibus et n....