SRINAGAR: The J&K high court on Wednesday quashed the conviction of an elderly woman in a 1979 murder case from Uri near the LoC in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, citing 46 years of litigation and her age-related infirmities.A single bench bench of Justice Sanjay Parihar ruled that Shameema Begam’s sentence should be treated as already served, saying that maintaining a substantive prison term after decades of litigation served no useful purpose. The court ordered the case to be dropped while declaring that “the crime was committed in heated passion and without premeditation.”The murder dates back to July 10, 1979, when Begam of Bijhama village hit her mother-in-law with an ax during a domestic dispute. The elderly woman had intervened in an argument when Begam was repeatedly asked to irrigate corn fields and died four days later from head injuries.Begam was arrested on July 21, 1979 and released on bail on October 25 of the same year. Police registered an FIR at Bijhama police station under Sections 326 and 324 of the Ranbir Penal Code, the criminal code then in force in J&K under the Dogra-era laws. After the death of the victim, the charge was converted to murder under Section 302 RPC.The process dragged on for three decades. On July 16, 2009, a trial court convicted Begam under Section 304 RPC on the ground that the act was manslaughter and not murder and sentenced her to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000. She was arrested after her conviction but released on bail within days – on July 28, 2009.Begam appealed the verdict. The appeal remained pending for more than 16 years before reaching final hearing. Her lawyer Nida Nazir said the extraordinary delay in both the trial and the appeal violated Begam’s right to a speedy trial and warranted a compassionate approach.HC termed the case as “a testimony to the systematic delay in disposing of criminal cases”. The court said that while delay might not normally benefit a convicted person, it should not ignore the reality that defendants remain trapped in the criminal justice system for decades. “The appeal is accordingly dismissed,” the court said, ending one of the longest-running criminal cases in Kashmir.
