50 million pending cases before Indian courts... A judge decides a dispute that began 72 years ago
India's longest legal dispute has ended at the hands of a judge who was not even born when the case began in court more than 70 years ago.
The case brought by Bank of Berhampur lasted so long that some likened it to Charles Dickens' fictional legal epic "Jarndys vs. Jarndyce" in Bleak House, to the extent that many of the details of the case considered by the court became muddled after many of its parties died.
The bank initially sued to recover unpaid loans in 1951, just four years after India gained independence from Britain, while the debtors filed a counterclaim challenging the bank's allegations against them. Then the case was mired in delays and legal arguments for decades.
And in 2006, the bank was liquidated and the judge ruled that this ends the case, but his ruling was not recorded in the system, and this means that the decision remained pending, until Judge Prakash Shrivastava (61 years) signed the ruling last week, and the case was officially closed.
India's court system has about 50 million pending cases, but the length of the Berhampur Bank case may be outpaced by other cases.
Two other pending cases also dating back to 1952 are being heard by a court, according to the Times Of India, while another court is hearing cases dating back to 1956.
Many plaintiffs are waiting years or decades for justice, or even substantive discussion of their case.
"The beauty of the Indian judicial system is also its flaw. Great efforts are being made to ensure justice for all. We are also working on pending cases but I agree with the critics that they are too slow," said Gaurav Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer.
Lawyer Karan Balraj Mehta, of the Delhi High Court, blamed the crumbling infrastructure.
"We need more, bigger, newer courts, more judges, and other subsidiary services," he said. "Only then can we get justice quickly."
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