India’s oldest case in 72 years was settled by the bench of the Calcutta High Court last week. This case related to Berhampur Bank was registered a decade before the birth of the current Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava. The court has got relief as the litigation related to the liquidation proceedings of Berhampur Bank Limited is now over.
However, despite settling the old case, the delayed justice is news as the Chief Justice of the court is younger than a decade than this case. The case dating back to 1951 was settled last week. The trial in the case had been going on for as many as 72 years.
After dealing with this case, three of the five oldest pending cases are yet to be dealt with. These old cases were filed in 1952. Of the remaining three cases, two civil cases are pending in the Civil Court in Malda, Bengal, and one in the Madras High Court. The Malda court held the last hearing to resolve these cases in March and November.
The Berhampur case is the oldest case to be heard in an Indian court. The case for liquidation of Berhampur Bank Limited had come up before the court in 1951. The Calcutta High Court declared the bank bankrupt on November 19, 1948. It also ordered the closure of this bank.
However, the court’s order was challenged through a petition by several consumers seeking their money back. Through these petitions, the case again came up before the court on January 1, 1951. At that time, the case was numbered 71/1951.
The trial of the case has been going on since then. According to information received, the petitions challenging the liquidation of the bank were heard twice in September last year. However, no one was present on these dates at that time.
Justice Kapoor then sought a report from the court’s liquidator. On September 19, 2022, the assistant liquidator told the bench that the matter was disposed of in August 2006. It was learned that it was not included in the records and the matter remained on the pending list.
