Recovery suit - statute of limitationnnMy father's friend owed him some money. For the same the coll

Recovery suit - statute of limitationnnMy father's friend owed him some money. For the same the collateral that he gave was a cheque and promisory note. He's has been delaying the payment for a long time and now we are planning to go ahead with the legal proceedingsWhile going through the documents, i noticed that the cheque and promisory note both have date of 20/12/2019 on them. So as a result NIA is ruled out. Also on the civil recovery suit front, we are beyond the 3 years period by 4 months. nnIs it still possible to successfully file this case even though we have crossed the period of 3 years under the statute of limitation?nWhat is usually a valid reason that the judge usually considers in such cases?nIs COVID going to provide us any relief while calculating the duration?nA friend adviced me that since my father passed away in 7/2019, I can ask for consideration from the judge on the grounds that I was taking over the family matters and this as a result got delayedPls sugg