14 THIRD PRELIMINARY OBJECTION Owing to the Commission’s late submission of the application, the Court’s jurisdiction is barred, according to the terms of Article 51(1) of the Convention Arguments of the State 52. The State submitted the following arguments with regard to Article 51(1) of the Convention: a) the Commission clearly exceeded the time limit of three months provided for in the Convention to submit the application to the Court; b) the relevant provisions of the Convention have not been observed, since in the present case “the Commission should have adopted an Article 51 report”; and c) the Commission submitted the case to the Court on the last day the State was able to respond to the Merits Report No. 35/02. Arguments of the Commission 53. The Commission argued the following with regard to the present preliminary objection: a) the instant case was submitted in accordance with the applicable norms and practices; b) in June and then August of 2002 the State requested extensions of the applicable deadline, and expressly recognized that “if the suspension is granted, […] once the […] suspension has expired and no settlement of the case has been reached, the Commission may decide to submit the case to the Inter-American Court”; and c) an extension, when requested by the State, benefits the State by providing it with additional time to resolve a matter prior to its submission before the Court. Suriname cannot request and accept a benefit, and then invoke it as a procedural violation. Arguments of the representatives 54. The representatives did not submit arguments related to the instant preliminary objection. The Court’s Assessment 55. The Court will now turn to examine whether the Commission in the instant case submitted the application to this Tribunal in a timely fashion, according to the terms of Article 51(1) of the Convention. 56. Both the State and the Commission are in agreement that, after the transmission of the Merits Report No. 35/02 to the former, Suriname requested two extensions of the time limit provided for in Article 51(1) of the Convention, which