In Brief
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court took suo motu action to extend limitation periods for filing all legal proceedings. As conditions improved, the Court terminated the blanket extension but protected litigants whose deadlines had expired. The Court excluded the lockdown period (15 March 2020 to 14 March 2021) from limitation calculations across all laws. Persons whose limitation expired during this period received a minimum 90-day grace period from 15 March 2021, or their actual remaining time, whichever was longer. The order applied to civil suits, arbitration, commercial court matters, and negotiable instrument disputes.
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