When the matter was taken to court India was still under the British, independence was nine years away, Mahatma Gandhi was alive and World War II was yet to start. Well, 66 years later, that very property dispute has finally been decided.
It was the third generation of lawyers and fourth generation of litigants who last fortnight witnessed the end of a dispute that had started in 1938 over a rambling 18,000 sq ft property in this Uttar Pradesh capital.
But the documentation in what was one of the oldest pending litigation in the country had clearly withstood the ravages of time. When the case was finally decided last fortnight at the local civil judge's court here the files had to be carried in a rickshaw - they weighed more than 60 kg!
According to lawyer Pankaj Shukla, the property in Lucknow's cantonment area originally belonged to landlord Daroga Bux, who had purchased it from a British Army officer in the early 1920s. His four sons got involved in a tussle over the property and approached the courts for action in 1938.
The action took some time in coming, but none of the benefactors are complaining too much.
When it all began, there were only four litigants. There were 42 a fortnight ago. Of the four brothers, three died during the 1950s and one moved to Pakistan after the partition. Though the 'Pakistan' brother's heirs did not stake a claim, the 42 descendants of the others did - and are now jubilant at getting something out of the property pie.
After all, the property has escalated in value, from Rs.6,000 66 years ago to Rs.200 million ($4.5 million) now.
"Even though a large portion of the property is under illegal occupation by those who are running shops, some private builders have already begun to approach us with their offer to buy it for building a commercial complex," disclosed a beaming Riyaz Khan, one of the key litigants.
His other cousins, many on the brink of destitution, were equally thrilled at the thought of acquiring a fortune that had seemed lost.
Relating the case history, lawyer Shukla said: "The first few decades only saw the change of dates for the hearing. The bulk of the matter was actually dealt with only in the last four years.
"Much of the credit goes to civil judge Sarvesh Chandra who was determined to take decisions in the matter that had been hanging fire for so long."
Justice delayed is not always justice denied, all's well that ends well - the clichés are many but for the 42 litigants who have suddenly come into money that scarcely matters.
--Indo-Asian News Service