Order 122

Time

1. Where by these Rules, or by any order, time for doing any act or taking any proceeding is limited by months, such time shall be computed by calendar months, unless otherwise expressed.

2. Where any limited time less than six days from or after any date or event is appointed or allowed for doing any act or taking any proceeding, Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday shall not be reckoned in the computation of such limited time.

3. Where the time for doing any act or taking any proceeding expires on a Saturday, Sunday, or other day on which the offices are closed, and by reason thereof such act or proceeding cannot be done or taken on that day, such act or proceeding shall, so far as regards the time of doing or taking the same, be held to be duly done or taken if done or taken on the day on which the offices shall next be open.

4. [1] Subject to rule 5, a party may deliver or amend a pleading during the Long vacation.  

5. [2] Save on consent of the parties or by direction of the Court, the month of August shall not be reckoned in the computation of the times appointed or allowed by these Rules for amending, or delivering a pleading.

6. The day on which an order for security for costs is served and the time thenceforward until and including the day on which such security is given, shall not be reckoned in the computation of time allowed to plead, answer interrogatories, or take any other proceeding in the cause or matter.

7. [3] (1) Subject to sub-rule (2) and to any relevant provision of statute, the Court shall have power to enlarge or abridge the time appointed by these Rules, or fixed by any order enlarging time, for doing any act or taking any proceeding, upon such terms (if any) as the Court may direct, and any such enlargement may be ordered although the application for same is not made until after the expiration of the time appointed or allowed.

(2) Sub-rule (1) does not apply to any application to which Order 8 applies

8. The time for delivering, amending, or filing any pleading, answer, or other document may be enlarged by consent in writing, without application to the Court.

9. Service of summonses, pleadings, notices, orders, and other proceedings, shall be effected before the hour of five o’clock in the afternoon, except on Saturdays, when it shall be effected before the hour of one o’clock in the afternoon.  Service effected after five o’clock in the afternoon on any weekday except Saturday shall, for the purpose of computing any period of time subsequent to such service, be deemed to have been effected on the following day.  Service effected after one o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday shall for the like purpose be deemed to have been effected on the following Monday.

10. In any case in which any particular number of days, not expressed to be clear days, is prescribed by these Rules, the same shall be reckoned exclusively of the first day and inclusively of the last day.

11. In any cause or matter in which there has been no proceeding for one year from the last proceeding had, the party who desires to proceed shall give a month’s notice to the other party of his intention to proceed.  In any cause or matter in which there has been no proceeding for two years from the last proceeding had, the defendant may apply to the Court to dismiss the same for want of prosecution, and on the hearing of such application the Court may order the cause or matter to be dismissed accordingly or may make such order and on such terms as to the Court may seem just.  A motion or summons on which no order has been made shall not, but notice of trial although countermanded shall, be deemed a proceeding within this rule.

12.[4] Where:

(a)  a provision of these Rules requires the delivery to or service on a party of any pleading or other document within a prescribed period after the delivery or service of a previous pleading or document or after another step in the proceedings, and

(b)  the party to whom the pleading or other document is to be delivered or on whom such pleading or other document is to be served has provided an address for service outside the jurisdiction, and

(c)  the pleading or other document can only be served in accordance with Order 11D,

the delivery or service of the pleading or other document concerned shall be deemed to have been effected in time if lodged with the transmitting agency for the transmission and service of the pleading or other document in accordance with Order 11D within the prescribed period.


[1]     Order 122 rules 4 and 5 substituted by SI 471 of 2016, effective 10 October 2016. 

[2]     Order 122 rules 4 and 5 substituted by SI 471 of 2016, effective 10 October 2016. 

[3]     Order 122 rule 7 substituted by SI 482 of 2018, effective 11 January 2019.

      Superseded amendment: Order 122 rule 7 substituted by SI 248 of 2005, effective 2 June 2005.

[4]     Order 122 rule 12 inserted by SI 307 of 2013, effective 26 August 2013.