Friday, March 29, 2024

SC gives lifer to a convict who was already released having served 15 years in prison!

Image: Courtesy LiveLaw

A comic-cruel incident has happened. The Supreme Court last week convicted an accused for life-term in a murder case, pending from 2004. The only strange thing is, the lifer had already been released from jail in 2019 having completed his punishment. 

Suresh Yadav, the convict, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Vikram Nath last week. He faced the punishment for killing his lover in 2004. To the shock of the jury though, they were told that Yadav had already served 15 years, 9 months and 27 days in prison and was released by the Chhattisgarh government. 

Yadav was first convicted by a trial court in 2004, and later the High Court upheld the conviction in 2010. He then moved the Supreme Court in 2012. However, though the case was listed thrice for hearing, it was adjourned every time. Then the Supreme Court forgot about the case for next eight yeas. 

Some 73,000 cases are pending before the Supreme Court—some 44 million in all the courts of India as of last year. A report by Niti Aayog in 2018 states that the cases in courts for more than 30 years numbered 65,695 in December 2018. By January this year, the figure had risen to 1,05,560 —a 60% rise. 

The Supreme Court has 193 working days in a year and has five vacations in its annual calendar. A summer break of 45 days, winter break of 15 days, Holi vacation of one week, five days break each for Dussehra and Diwali which accounts for a total of 193 working days. 

According to the reports, considering the rate of disposal of cases in Indian Courts, it would take more than 324 years to clear the entire backlog.

(This piece is largely taken from OpIndia). 

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