New Delhi: This is how justice is denied when courts follow the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. An indigent murder convict, who was abandoned by his family and was not given proper legal advice, challenged the trial court’s order of his conviction and life imprisonment after a delay of nine years in the Orissa HC, which refused to decide his plea on merits and dismissed it on the grounds of delay. The convict had to spend another 10 years in jail before the Supreme Court came to his rescue.Terming the HC order passed in 2016 as “very disturbing”, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan used the extraordinary power given to the SC to serve justice under Article 142 and directed the release of the convict as his conduct in jail has been satisfactory and he has spent 22 years in jail and has not come out of jail even once.“While refusing to condone the delay the HC should have considered the fact that the petitioner was already serving the sentence for 12 years. The HC should also have considered that this was an appeal through prison. It was enough for the HC to take a pragmatic view or a sympathetic view on the matter and should have at least condoned the delay so as to give the petitioner a chance to argue his criminal appeal on merits. As on date, the petitioner has served almost all the sentence. 22 Year sentence,” the bench said.The Court said that the petitioner has not been released even once on parole or furlough and in such circumstances it would be futile to condone the delay and ask the HC to now hear the criminal appeal on merits.The bench said, “We are convinced that we should release the petitioner on bail in the specific facts and circumstances of this case. Thus, in the exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution as an exceptional case, we order that the petitioner be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 to the satisfaction of the Jail Superintendent.”The bench directed the District Legal Services Authority, Koraput to help it prepare appropriate representations for remission of sentence.