SC acquits man after 22 years in jail, condemns Delhi High Court’s refusal to delay appeal

New Delhi: This is how justice is denied when courts focus only on the letter of the law and not its spirit. A poor murder convict, abandoned by his family and without proper legal advice, challenged the trial court’s order of his conviction and life imprisonment after a nine-year delay in the Odisha High Court, which refused to rule on his plea on merits and dismissed the appeal citing delay. The convict spent another 10 years in jail before the SC came to his rescue.Terming the Supreme Court order passed in 2016 as “very disturbing”, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan invoked the extraordinary powers vested in the SC to complete justice under Section 142 and directed the release of the convict as his conduct in jail was satisfactory and he had spent 22 years in jail without even being released from jail once.“The High Court, while refusing to condone the delay, should have taken into account the fact that the petitioner has served more than 12 years in prison. The High Court should also have considered that this is an appeal filed through jail. This in itself is enough for the High Court to take a realistic view, or rather a sympathetic view, of the matter and at least the delay should be condoned to give the petitioner an opportunity to argue substantively on his criminal appeal. As of now, the petitioner has almost completed 22 years of imprisonment,” the bench said.The court said the petitioner has not been granted parole or leave even once and in such circumstances, it would be futile to condone the delay and ask the High Court to hear the criminal appeal on merits now.“We are satisfied that in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case, we should release the petitioner on bail. Therefore, in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution as a special case, we order that the petitioner be released on bail subject to a personal bond of Rs 10,000 to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of Prisons,” the bench said.The judge directed District Legal Services Agency Koraput to help him prepare an appropriate statement seeking a reduced sentence.