The object of the Limitation Act is to quiet long possession and extinguish State demands. The principle upon which the statutes of limitation are based is that it is to the interest of the state that remedies for violated right should be sought in court without delay. Violated rights and suits based upon them require evidence to establish and substantiate them in a Court of Law.
Long delay may obliterate all evidence and this fact may tend to the prejudice of justice. Lord Plunkett, the Lord Chancellor, is reported to have said, “Time holds in one hand scythe and in other an hour glass; the scythe owes down the evidence of our rights, the hour glass measures the period which renders the evidence superfluous”.
Unlimited and perpetual litigation disturbs the peace of society and leads to disorder and confusion. A constant dread of judicial process and a feeling of insecurity retard the growth and prosperity of a nation. Labour is paralysed when the enjoyment of its fruit is uncertain.
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Moreover where stale claims leave the Courts no time to attend promptly to more recent and urgent cases, creditors and injured parties in general are led to suspect the readiness of the State to enforce their rights. It is, therefore, expedient that the possibilities of litigation should be limited and restricted.
The law of limitation prescribes the limits. The Romans, therefore, had the maxim interest republican us sit fines lithium (the interest of the State requires that a period should be put to litigation). “The Law of Limitation prevents persons, from enforcing their own rights, and disputing the rights of others after a certain period of time and thus quiets titles and enhances the value of property.
It enables men to reckon upon security from further claim and to act upon it. The necessity for putting a limit to litigation arises also from the perishable nature of a man and all that belongs to him. It has been said by John voet that controversies are limited to a fixed period of time, lest they should be immortal while men are mortal.
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The death of parties and witnesses, the loss of destruction of documents and the fading of memory, in the course of time, render such a limit highly expedient for putting a limit to litigation.” No hindrance should be placed upon free circulation of property but so long as the title to property remains dubious and unsettled such circulation cannot take place freely or at all.
Laws of limitation enjoin alertness upon the citizen by making a citizen who delays too long to lose his right altogether. Vigitan tibus non dormentibus jura subvention (the laws assist the vigilant and not those who sleep over the rights).