Article 52: (Art. 110 of the Act of 1908):
The period of limitation for a suit for arrears of rent is three years and the time of limit is the date when the arrears become due.
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Article 52 applies only to suit for rent. The expression ‘rent’ has not been defined in the Limitation Act, 1963. In K. Rama Murthy v. Gopinath, (AIR 1968 SC 919), it is held that in its wider sense ‘rent’ means any payment made for the use of land or buildings and this includes the payment by a licensee in respect of the use and occupation of any land or building and in its narrow sense it means payment made by tenant to landlord for property demised to him.
Section 105 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 defines ‘rent’ as the money, share, service or other thing paid by a lessee to the lessor.
According to Halsbury, the modem concept of rent is a payment which a tenant is bound by a contract to make to his landlord for the use of the property let.
For the purpose of Limitation Act, rent only means rent payable by the tenant to the landlord.
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Rent includes payment in respect of special amenities provided by the landlord under the agreement between him and the tenant.
In Bejoy Ratan Dey v. Atin Kumar Ghosh, (AIR 1963 Cal. 531), it has been held that the suit to recover a contractual rent is governed by Article 52. For a claim of rent to arise that should be relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties and the liability should arise under a contract express or implied.
In Tej v. Purushottam, (AIR 1981 MP 58), it has been held that the starting point of limitation for recovery of arrears of rent by the landlord ‘ is the date when the arrears became due and when the rent became due is a matter of agreement between the parties. Rent can be agreed to be paid in advance and when it is so agreed, it would become due even though the month of tenancy has not expired.