Baghpat Court Ends 27-Year Case, Sentences 80-Year-Old to Stand One Day in Court

After attending more than 100 court hearings over nearly three decades, an 80-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh finally walked free last week after a court sentenced him to merely stand in court for a day, bringing to an end a criminal case that had followed him for 27 years.

Rajendra Singh, a resident of Baghpat district, appeared before the court frail and unsteady due to age. Court's decision effectively closed a legal battle that had stretched across almost three decades, during which Singh repeatedly attended court proceedings while awaiting the conclusion of his trial.

According to media reports, the octogenarian was relieved that the prolonged litigation had finally come to an end and returned home a free man after complying with the sentence.

The case has once again drawn attention to the issue of delays in India's criminal justice system, where accused persons often spend years, and sometimes decades, awaiting the final outcome of their cases. For elderly litigants, such delays can mean spending a significant portion of their lives navigating court proceedings before a verdict is ultimately delivered.

The Baghpat case is not an isolated example. Only last week, a court in Bihar's Vaishali district convicted an 85-year-old man in a 1992 attempt-to-murder case, more than three decades after the incident.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar Tiwari found Deep Rai guilty under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. Court subsequently granted him provisional bail.

The Bihar case involved multiple accused and stemmed from an incident that occurred in 1992. By the time the judgment was delivered in 2026, the principal convict had reached the age of 85, underscoring how criminal proceedings can continue for decades before reaching finality.

[Source: TOI]