1. The appellants sued for exercising their right of pre-emption against the respondents. The suit came to be dismissed, inter alia, on the ground that it was barred by the law of limitation. An appeal therefrom has been dismissed. In this second appeal, two substantial questions of law with regard to the period of limitation and implied repeal of the limitation, specifying period of limitation are framed, which are as under:

a) Whether in a suit for pre-emption, the limitation period is governed by Article 1566 of Portuguese Civil Code or Article 97 of Indian Limitation Act, 1963?

b) Whether in view of Indian Limitation Act, 1963 which applies to the State of Goa and prescribes a period of limitation for a suit to enforce the right of pre-emption that part of Article 1566 prescribing a shorter period of limitation stands repealed?

The aforesaid questions may be considered together.

The other issues, on facts, have resulted in concurrent findings of fact, which need not be gone into in this appeal.

2. The plaintiffs exercised their right of pre-emption under Article 1566 of the Portuguese Civil Code (PCC), the relevant part of which runs thus:

“The co-owners of indivi