COVID-19 limitation exclusion applied to commercial written statements, allowing filing beyond the ordinary procedural deadline.

The Supreme Court's COVID-19 limitation orders were held to apply to the filing of written statements in commercial suits, because the later order of 08.03.2021 excluded the period from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021 not only for limitation but also for outer limits on condonation. In commercial disputes under Order 8 Rule 1 CPC as modified by the Commercial Courts Act, the 30-day filing period and 120-day outer limit were therefore computed by excluding that period. On that basis, the written statements were within time and could be taken on record.

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Issues: Whether the limitation-extension orders passed in the COVID-19 suo motu proceedings applied to the filing of written statements in a commercial suit so as to permit taking the written statements on record beyond the ordinary 120-day period.

Analysis: The limitation-extension orders initially extended only the period of limitation, but the later order of 08.03.2021, as reiterated thereafter, expressly directed exclusion of the period from 15.03.2020 to 14.03.2021 not only for limitation periods but also for outer limits within which delay may be condoned under laws governing proceedings. In commercial disputes, the scheme of Order 8 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, as modified by Section 16 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, provides a 30-day period for filing written statements and an outer limit of 120 days. Once the later Supreme Court orders were applied, the applications for acceptance of the written statements were within time and the earlier view based on the pre-08.03.2021 regime could not stand.

Conclusion: The refusal to take the written statements on record was unsustainable and the relief sought by the appellants was allowed.

Final Conclusion: The defendants were entitled to have their written statements received on record in the commercial suit in view of the later COVID-19 limitation orders, and the matter was to proceed accordingly.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a later binding order excludes a specified period for computing not only limitation but also condonable outer limits, that exclusion applies to the filing of written statements in commercial disputes governed by the amended procedural timeline.

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