India’s oldest case dating back to Nov 1948 finally settled

The Calcutta High Court still has two of the five oldest cases in India yet to settle

New Delhi, Jan 16: A 72 year old litigation, India's oldest case was disposed off by the Calcutta High Court last week.

The case pertains to the liquidation of the Berhampore Bank Ltd and was filed on November 19 1948. With this case being disposed of the Calcutta High Court still has two of the next five oldest pending cases in the country to deal with. All these cases were filed in 1952.

The Berhampore case is mentioned in the National Judicial Data Grid as the oldest one to be head in any Indian court until January 9.

The case dates back to November 19 1948 following an order of the Calcutta High Court to wind up the then insolvent and litigation mired Berhampore bank. A petition challenging the same was filed on January 1 1951 and the case was registered as Case No 71/1951.

The bank had been mired in several litigations to recover money from the debtors. Many debtors moved the court challenging the claims made by the Bank. Reports said that the case had come up for hearing in the High Court twice in September 2022, but none turned up. The court had sought a report from the curt's liquidator. On September 19, the assistant liquidator told the Bench that the case had been disposed off 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.

On January 9, Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur signed the disposal order of September 19 last year. The order was signed, sealed and delivered with a typographical correction.