Thursday, March 14, 2013

Justice delayed is justice denied


“In a heart rending plea, a person acquitted of rape charges has moved the Supreme Court seeking restoration of his lost dignity and honour.


The 2006 Mayapuri rape had shocked the capital as a hearing and speech impaired pregnant woman was sexually assaulted in a moving car. The petitioner, who was running a diagnostic centre, was in jail for more than four years before a trial court acquitted him”.

This news is from Times of India (

In 1960s BR Chopra’s film ‘khanoon’ raised a similar question. Actor Jeevan ia sentenced to  years in jail for committing a murder. The person murdered is alive. Jeevan after release from jail shoots the man dead. In the court room Jeevan questions the judge, “ can you punish a man twice for the same offence? And can you give back my years spent in confinement?” Solution is not given. Jeevan collapses in the witness box and is dead.