India's 'oldest case' ends after 76 yrs—for Rs 807

In a review of old cases last year, the Supreme Court called it one of India's oldest litigations. At the centre of it lay a six-acre plot in Raja Gaon Kharauni village in Uttar Pradesh, over which three generations of a family have fought for 76 years. On February 20, a local court, told by the apex court to hurry up the matter, finally settled the case: The successors of Jogana Kauri could take back the mortgaged plot after depositing Rs 807.

While the family claims to have spent over Rs 3 lakh on lawyer fees, they walk away with more than just the satisfaction of having won. The two-crop fertile land is now worth over Rs 1 crore.

Dharmnath Singh, 75, remembers the case, filed back in 1936, down to every last detail. The youngest of Singh's three sons, Ashutosh, 24, admits he never took interest in it till now. It hasn't been easy for the family to watch a diabetic Dharmnath Singh, who retired as a pharmacist in 1998, persist with the case, setting apart a portion of his salary during his entire working career as well as later from his monthly pension of Rs 10,500 to fight the case.

Of Dharmnath Singh's three sons, two are unemployed, including Ashutosh. Another son works in an export company in Delhi. The family has a four-acre plot, but that's barely enough to meet their expenses.

Sitting on a charpoy in his house in the upper caste Rajput-dominated village of Raja Gaon Kharauni, 25 km from the district town of Ballia, Singh says he has already deposited the Rs 807 at the District Collectorate and is waiting for the sub-divisional magistrate to issue a formal order to those holding the land to vacate it.

For as long as he could understand these matters, Singh says, he remembers being aware about the case, having been told about it by father Ganesh, who once used to till the land.

... contd.

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