Hi Amritbhupinder, thank you for the effort and getting information from CIC.
I presume that CIC is doing batch process and this is possible to avoid backlog. Hence, NOC 2281 is not cap and same with other NOCs.
There is no point CIC will wait for 3 months, then at the end they will just return. Unless, before opening applicant's file they will check first if NOC is cap or not. As mentioned previously from other forums, fifo rule is followed.
At the moment, we cannot conclude that 2281 NOC is cap until application has been returned to applicant.