(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.