Two brothers fighting a case over a piece of land in Daltonganj town for over 24 years garlanded each other even as tears welled up in their eyes after the case was resolved to compromise in the ongoing mega lok adalat here in the civil court in Palamu without any fear or favour. And, significantly enough, the garlands were brought by an official of the court.
And the man standing behind this emotional reunion of the two brothers was none but the principal district and sessions judge of Palamu civil court, justice K K Srivastava, and his secretary of the district legal services authority, Uttam Anand.
A kind of satisfaction was writ large on their faces. The two brothers’ case came as appeal in the court of Srivastava. They were fighting and fighting since long. One version is that the case dates back to 1957. It was in 1990 an appeal was filed. This case was a title suit dragging on and on and this had to be stop, said Srivastava.
The principal judge said, “It is the civil dispute first that leads to crime. And dispute over land goes on and on from generation to generation.”
“I decided to bring these two brothers Girish Kumar Binod and Tapeshwar Prasad together. I did not play on their battle fatigued nerves. I prodded their conscience and awoke their reasoning and the result is their compromise petition which is a part of the award of the lok adalat,” he said. Secretary Uttam Anand said, “The compromise reached between these two brothers saved this case from reaching the High Court and the Supreme Court as any loser in appeal would have knocked at these courts, even would have tried to go for letters Patent Appeal (lPA) in the High Court and then would have gone to the Supreme Court.”
A senior lawyer, Baikunth Dubey, of respondent Tapeshwar Prasad said such a deliverance of compromise is all worth appreciating as the case would have further spiraled up. There was a modest crowd of people watching this reunion who were convinced that the lok adalat is really delivering.
In a rare scene ever found in the premises of the court, garlands were exchanged and tears rolled down the brothers’ eyes. A script of amity was written and signed between the two brothers which had a seal of legal authority, said Srivastava. A commoner who witnessed this scene said such a re-union inspired by the judiciary will help reduce the quantum of cases pending in the court.
Court sources said judicial officers hardly give credit to their predecessors but here the principal district and sessions judge Srivastava was all praise for his predecessors who as he said had their contribution in making these two brothers reach a final solution to this long-drawn title suit.