Justice delayed is justice denied

We welcome the High Court's directive asking the government to explain why four prisoners, who have been imprisoned for more than nine years without trial, should not be granted bail in the cases against them. This delay is denying both the prisoners and their alleged victims the justice they deserve and is yet another example of how delay in justice dispensation has reached a point where it has become a factor of injustice.

Only in February, the High Court had issued a similar directive in regards to eight prisoners detained without trial for more than a decade, which is just one such example out of numerous others. 462 people are currently languishing in jail with minimum progress made in the trial proceedings of the cases against them; 58 of them have, reportedly, been in custody for five to ten years.

Given such high figures, one can only imagine just how many people over the years have had to languish in prison longer than what they should have, for no other reason other than case backlogs. From where are they supposed to receive compensation for this? And an even better question is: can they even ever be compensated for having to serve undeserved jail time?

These are questions that the authorities must address. And most importantly, the authorities should devise a way to solve the problem of case backlogs which has clearly become one of the main obstructions to justice in our country.