In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of India acquitted Md Bani Alam Mazid of murder charges after a prolonged legal battle spanning 21 years. Arrested in 2003, Mazid was accused of the kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old girl. The case, which highlighted severe judicial delays, was pending before the Supreme Court for over 13 years with the judgment reserved for nearly 11 months.
Mazid was initially convicted by the Kamrup sessions court in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction was upheld by the Gauhati High Court in 2010, which led him to appeal to the Supreme Court in 2011. Despite an order in 2017 to expedite proceedings, Mazid’s request for interim bail was repeatedly denied until an eight-week interim bail was granted in 2018 to attend to his ailing mother.
The Supreme Court, with a bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, concluded hearing the arguments on March 21, 2024, and reserved judgment. It was not until February 24, 2025, that the verdict was finally pronounced, acquitting Mazid due to insufficient evidence and flaws in the prosecution’s case.
The justices pointed out significant gaps in the prosecution’s arguments, notably discarding the extra-judicial confessions as inadmissible and recognizing inconsistencies in witness testimonies. They noted that the circumstantial evidence provided by the prosecution failed to form a complete chain, thereby failing to prove Mazid’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court also considered the relationship between Mazid and the victim, which was known and accepted by their families, further complicating the prosecution’s narrative that lacked any direct evidence of sexual assault or financial motive.
This case underscores the critical issues of judicial delays and the backlog within the Indian judiciary. According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), over 55% of criminal cases pending before the Supreme Court are over a year old, with a total pendency of 81,274 cases. Mazid’s ordeal, which resulted in over two decades of imprisonment for a crime not conclusively proven, calls into question the efficiency of India’s legal system and the severe consequences of such delays on personal liberty.
