India's oldest pending case finally settles after 72 years

India's oldest litigation at 72 years was finally disposed off by the Calcutta High Court last week. The case pertained to the liquidation of the erstwhile Berhampore Bank Ltd.

A bench of India's oldest high court— whose current Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava was a full decade after the case had been filed in 1951 — decided the country's longest legal dispute, a report by Times of India said.

The report further added that Calcutta High Court still has two of the country's next five oldest pending cases to deal with. These were filed in 1952.

Of the remaining three cases,  two are civil suits being heard in civil courts in West Bengal's Malda and one is pending in the Madras High Court. The Malda Courts have reportedly lined up hearings in March and November this year.

The Berhampore case is also mentioned in the National Judicial Data Grid as the oldest one to be heard in any Indian court. The case started after the Calcutta High Court ordered the insolvent Berhampore Bank to wind up operations on November 19, 1948. A petition challenging the liquidation proceedings was filed on January 1, 1951 and registered the same day as "Case No. 71/1951".

The insolvent bank was caught in multiple litigations to recover money from debtors. Many of these debtors moved court, challenging the bank's claims.

The petition challenging the liquidation order came up twice for hearing in September 2022 but nobody turned up.

On September 19, the assistant liquidator told the bench that the case had been disposed of in August 2006. However, it transpired that it was not present in the records and this ensured that the case remained in the pending list.

Also Read: Joshimath crisis: Supreme Court refuses to declare land subsidence a national disaster  

Also Read: ShareChat Layoffs: Google, Twitter-backed Indian unicorn fires 20% employees