Kolkata, India

The Calcutta High Court has finally reached a resolution in one of the oldest pending cases in the nation. This week, a panel of India's oldest high court—whose current Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava was born ten years after the case was initially filed in 1951—decided the country's longest legal dispute.

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Although the dispute surrounding the dissolution of the former Berhampur Bank Limited has finally been resolved, Calcutta High Court has still two of the five oldest pending cases to resolve. All the cases were filed in 1952, The Times of India reported.

The Madras high court is currently hearing a case, while the other remaining cases are civil lawsuits being handled in the civil courts of Malda, Bengal, Satlok Express News reported. In an effort to settle these disputed matters, the Malda courts have scheduled hearings for March and November.

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The National Judicial Data Grid lists the Berhampur case as the oldest case heard in any Indian court as of January 9. On January 1, 1951, a petition questioning the decision to shut down the Berhampur Bank was submitted, and on the same day, it was registered as "Case No. 71/1951." Several lawsuits were filed against debtors by Berhampur Bank in an effort to recover lost funds, many of whom filed court documents contesting the bank's claims.

The petition challenging the bank's liquidation was scheduled for two hearings before the HC last September, but no one showed up, according to court records.

Justice Kapur then asked the court's liquidator to provide a report. On September 19, the assistant liquidator notified the court that the matter had been resolved in August 2006. It was found that this was not corrected in the records, which is why the case was still listed as pending.

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(With inputs from agencies)

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