(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.