A historic broader full bench of the Supreme Court has decided that all court dates could be furnished within 30 days after the ongoing nationwide shutdown is lifted, and the lockdown days will be observed as a ‘zero period’.

The historic bench formed on May 18 and comprising 19 justices, and presided by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, has decided to count the zero period from March 22, two days before the nationwide lockdown began.

“The period of lockdown beginning from March 22 until its end will be observed as a ‘zero period’ for the legal purposes, and deadlines and court dates won’t be counted for that period,” states the court decision released on Thursday.

The full bench has been convened to seek a way out of the unexpected hurdles the court faces in delivering justice due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

According to lawyers, this is the first time that so many justices in the Supreme Court shared the bench to discuss a case. The broader bench included Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki, Biswombhar Prasad Shrestha, Iswor Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha, Prakash Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Tej Bahadur KC, Purushottam Bhandari, Bam Kumar Shrestha, Tanka Bahadur Moktan, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, Sushma Lata Mathema, Kumar Regmi, Hari Prasad Phuyal and Manoj Kumar Sharma.

The bench, however, excluded Justice Dambar Bahadur Shahi as he is due to retire on June 4.