Limitation period excluded for pandemic disruption, with revived balance time and extended protection under specified special enactments.

The Supreme Court excluded the limitation period from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021 because of pandemic disruption, and directed that the balance period remaining on 15.03.2020 would revive from 15.03.2021. Where limitation expired during the excluded interval, a minimum period of 90 days from 15.03.2021 was made available, subject to the longer remaining balance period if applicable. The directions were also extended to specified statutory periods under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the Commercial Courts Act, the Negotiable Instruments Act, and other laws prescribing limitation, condonation limits, or termination of proceedings.

---

---

Issues: Whether the limitation period for suits, appeals, applications and proceedings ought to be excluded for the period from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether the exclusion should also apply to specified statutory periods under special enactments.

Analysis: The order records that the earlier suo motu extension of limitation, granted because of the disruption caused by the pandemic, had served its purpose, but that the period of limitation should still exclude the entire interval from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021. It further directs that the balance period remaining as on 15.03.2020 would revive from 15.03.2021, and that where limitation expired during the excluded period, a minimum period of 90 days from 15.03.2021 would be available, subject to the longer balance period if applicable. The directions are also expressly extended to specified statutory periods under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the Commercial Courts Act, the Negotiable Instruments Act, and other laws prescribing limitation, outer limits for condonation, or termination of proceedings.

Conclusion: The limitation period from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021 stands excluded, and the connected statutory directions apply to the identified special enactments and similar limitation provisions.

---