In view of Covid- 19 surge, the Supreme Court extends limitation for filing of suits/appeals in Courts and Tribunals

Case Details: Cognizance For Extension of Limitation, In re - [2022] 134 taxmann.com 307 (SC)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • N.V. Ramana, CJI.
  • L. Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant, JJ.
  • Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Sr. Adv. Shivaji M. Jadhav, Ms. Manoj K. Mishra, Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., Ms. Diksha Rai, Nikhil Jain, Atulesh Kumar, Dr. Aman M. Hingorani, Ms. Anzu Varkey, Aljo Joseph, Sachin Sharma, Varinder K. Sharma, Prem Dave, Raghav Agrawal, Toshiv Goyal, Advs. Abhinav Ramkrishna and Himanshu Chaubey, AOR’s for the Petitioner. 
  • Soumya Chakraborty, Sr. Adv. Rajat Nair, Kanu Agrawal, Siddhant Kohli, Chinmayee Chandra, Manan Bansal, Aakash Nandolia, Sagun Srivastava, Jenis V. Frensis, Prashant K. Sharma, Subhro Mukherjee, Sameer Parekh, Kshatrashal Raj, Ms. Tanya Chaudhry, Ms. Pratyusha Priyadarshini, Ms. Nitika Pandey, Ms. Maitrayee Banerjee, Rohit Bansal, Ms. Shashi Pathak, Parikshit Ahuja, Ms. Praveena Bisht, Ms. Madhur Jhavar, Ms. Vindhya Mehra, Kartik Lahoti, Rahul Maheshwari, Ms. Shivangi Malhotra, Aditya Pratap Singh, Aditya Narayan Das, Ms. Binu Tamta, Dhruv Tamta, Siddhesh Kotwal, Ms. Ana Upadhyay, Ms. Manya Hasija, Ms. Pragya Barsaiyan, Akash Singh, Niranjan Sahu, Abhimanyu Tewari, Ms. Eliza bar, T.K. Nayak, Parikshit Ahuja, Ms. Madhur Jhavar, Ms. Vindhya Mehra, Kartik Lahoti, Rahul Maheshwari, Advs. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Divyakant Lahoti, Tapesh Kumar Singh, Ms. Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, Sibo Sankar Mishra, Avijit Mani Tripathi, Amit Sharma, Vinod Sharma, Mukesh K. Giri, Kunal Chatterji, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Ms. Uttara Babbar, Arjun Garg, Ms. Sunieta Ojha, P.I. Jose, Ms. Anindita Mitra, Sahil Tagotra, AOR’s K.K. Venugopal, AG and Tushar Mehta, SG for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

Earlier in March 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court took Suo Motu cognizance of the difficulties faced by the litigants in filing petitions/applications/suits/appeals/all other quasi proceedings within the period of limitation prescribed under the general law of limitation or under any special laws (both Central and/or State).

On 23-3-2020, the Court directed an extension of the period of limitation in all proceedings before all Courts w.e.f. 15-3-2020 till further orders. However, on 8-3-2021, the order dated 23-3-2020 was brought to an end, permitting the relaxation of the period of limitation between 15-3-2020 and 14-3-2021.

Thereafter, due to a second surge in COVID-19 cases, the Court extended the period of limitation in all proceedings before the Courts/Tribunals including this Court w.e.f 15-3-2020 till 2-10-2021.

Now as again the cases of covid are rising the present Miscellaneous Application has been filed by the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association in the context of the spread of the new variant of COVID-19 Considering the prevailing conditions, the applicants are seeking the following:

(a) allow the present application by restoring the order dated 23-3-2020 passed by this Hon’ble Court in Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) NO. 3 of 2020 ; and

(b) allow the present application by restoring the order dated 27-4-2021 passed by this Hon’ble Court in M.A. no. 665 of 2021 in Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) NO. 3 of 2020; and

(c) pass such other order or orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper.

Supreme Court Held

Taking into consideration the arguments advanced by learned counsel and the impact of the surge of the virus on public health and adversities faced by litigants in the prevailing conditions, the Supreme Court ordered that the period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 shall stand excluded for the purposes of limitation as may be prescribed under any general or special laws in respect of all judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings

In cases where the limitation would have expired during the period between 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022, notwithstanding the actual balance period of limitation remaining, all persons shall have a limitation period of 90 days from 01.03.2022. In the event the actual balance period of limitation remaining, with effect from 01.03.2022 is greater than 90 days, that longer period shall apply.

The period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 shall also stand excluded in computing the periods prescribed under Sections 23 (4) and 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 and provisos (b) and (c) of Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and any other laws, which prescribe period(s) of limitation for instituting proceedings, outer limits (within which the court or tribunal can condone delay) and termination of proceedings.

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