Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini's lawyer has confirmed that they filed their responses to the Constitutional Court's questions late, but said the department would apply to court to ask for the papers to be accepted by the court.
Tim Sukazi admitted to Eyewitness News on Tuesday morning that they missed the court's 4pm deadline on Monday and only filed the papers more than six hours later, but said he would apply for condonation.
He also said the South Africa Social Security Agency had known since April last year that it would not be able to take over grant payments from Cash Paymaster Services - one of the questions the court had asked the agency to answer.
In heads of argument that were filed on time on Monday, Sassa has revealed that it is again hoping to negotiate a new interim contract with CPS to pay out its social grants after last week's negotiations were turned down by a high-level team.
It put the ball in National Treasury's court to determine if these negotiations would go ahead. The Constitutional Court in 2014 declared the contract with CPS invalid and ordered Sassa to find a new service provider.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and officials from National Treasury are on Tuesday expected to explain its view on the social grants crisis to Parliament's public accounts committee, Scopa.