India, Feb. 5 -- PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court recently acquitted a man, aged around 100 years, 42 years after his conviction in a murder case dating back to 1982, as the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

The incident had taken place in Hamirpur and, after trial, the sessions court pronounced life term to the appellant - Dhani Ram in 1984. He challenged the judgment dated July 27, 1984, passed by additional sessions judge, Hamirpur, filing an appeal before the high court the same year.

"When a person stands before the court at the twilight of existence, the insistence on penal consequences, after decades of procedural delay, risks transforming justice into a ritual divorced from the purpose it inten...