In a haunting example of delayed justice, 104-year-old Lakhan Lal — who spent more than four decades in prison for a crime he did not commit — was finally acquitted and released a couple of weeks ago, exposing yet again the crushing weight of judicial apathy and procedural inertia in the country.
A resident of Kaushambi district in Uttar Pradesh, Lakhan Lal was arrested in 1977 for the murder of fellow villager Prabhu Pasi and sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court in 1982. He fought for justice ever since, and despite the Allahabad High Court eventually overturning his conviction, it took relentless efforts by his family and legal activists to secure his release.
That release, however, was not automatic. Astonishingly, even after the High Court’s acquittal, prison authorities cited “technical issues” and continued to hold him unlawfully. His family approached the Supreme Court, the Chief Minister, and the Law Minister, all to no avail. Only after Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Purnima Pranjal, and legal advisor Ankit Maurya brought the case to the notice of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and re-appealed to the High Court, was an order for his immediate release issued.
Lakhan Lal walked out of prison on 20 May 2025. He was taken to his daughter’s home, where the frailty of age and memory meant he could not recognize some of his relatives after such a long separation.
This case is not just a personal tragedy but a searing indictment of a justice system that is bloated, indifferent, and disastrously slow. That a man could be wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years, and even after being acquitted, be denied freedom due to bureaucratic negligence, reveals a judiciary more concerned with procedure than with human dignity.
Lakhan Lal’s story is a cruel reminder of how the wheels of Indian justice can grind not just slowly, but destructively — consuming lives, families, and decades in the process. It lays bare the urgent need for judicial reform and accountability in a system that has long ceased to prioritize the very people it was designed to protect.
It it noteworthy to mention that the Supreme Court had waded into the executive’s domain, dictating timelines and procedures to the President and Governor to take action on bills as if it were an administrative overseer.
(With inputs from Republic)
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