Section 518

Some offences aren't a single instant act but an ongoing state of affairs -- like unlawfully continuing to occupy land or keeping an illegal structure standing. Treating the limitation clock as starting only once, on day one, would let such offenders become immune from prosecution simply by outlasting the deadline while the wrongdoing continues. This provision ensures the clock effectively never fully runs out as long as the offence persists. It corresponds to section 472 of the earlier CrPC.

Courts interpreting the equivalent CrPC provision have distinguished 'continuing offences' -- where the unlawful act or omission persists day after day -- from offences that are complete the moment they occur, holding that only genuinely continuing wrongs attract this fresh, ever-renewing limitation period.