Supreme Court took 14 years to adjudicate criminal case, 2 convicts died while waiting New Delhi: Even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly followed the legal adage that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ – with CJI Surya Kant recently saying “justice delayed is justice denied” – the apex court has on several occasions taken more time than trial courts and high courts to decide a case. In a criminal case of culpable homicide, the SC took almost 14 years to decide on the appeal. During this period, two out of three convicts died.

The trial court had completed the proceedings in five years and the Uttarakhand High Court had disposed of the appeal in 10 years. According to records available on the apex court website, appeals in the Supreme Court were heard on 12 dates in the last 14 years.

The case pertains to a dispute over the sale of a watch worth Rs 500 in 1997, which led to a scuffle, resulting in the seller losing his life after falling into a dry canal. The trial court convicted all three accused in 2002 and sentenced them to five years’ imprisonment.

The trio approached the High Court, which upheld the conviction and sentence in 2012. He went to the Supreme Court in September 2012. Taking into account the period of almost 30 years and the age of the convict, the bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Arun Palli reduced his sentence to one and a half years’ imprisonment.

“The incident took place on February 12, 1997. The appellant was 33 years old. Today, we are in 2026, almost three decades have passed since then.

The appellant is now more than 60 years old… We have also looked into the genesis of the dispute between the deceased and the accused… All the injuries… were clearly caused by falling into a dry canal which had rocks in it,” the bench said. It added, “At this distant time, our The view is that it would serve the ends of justice if we commute the sentence of imprisonment from RI for five years to the period already served while retaining the conviction.

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