India, March 20 -- The Bombay high court on Wednesday struck down criminal proceedings against an 86-year-old widow, who was accused of evading Customs duty on a Mercedes car, owing to inordinate delay in completion of the trial. The case against the widow and her late husband, a businessman, had dragged on for 29 years and the delay was "so gross and so unjust" that the court must exercise its powers, the bench of justices Sarang Kotwal and SM Modak said while dismissing the case.

The businessman Dev Aggarwal, who passed away soon after approaching the high court in 2019, and his now widowed wife, Prabha, faced criminal prosecution at the instance of tax authorities for smuggling in a 1983-300D Mercedes through the air cargo complex in ...