The Delhi High Court has granted relief to a 90-year-old man involved in a 1984 corruption case by reducing his sentence to a day, noting that the delay was “plainly at odds” with the constitutional mandate of a speedy trial under Article 21.

Taking the analogy of ‘Sword of Damocles’, Justice Jasmeet Singh said the uncertainty over the man’s fate for a period of about 40 years by itself was a mitigating factor.