Thirteen Years, 527 Pages—and Still No Final Justice

 

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Thirteen Years, 527 Pages—and Still No Final Justice

The Bombay High Court has sentenced former Tehelka magazine editor Tarun Tejpal to ten years of rigorous imprisonment in a case relating to the alleged sexual assault of a colleague. The court has also directed that the woman be paid compensation of ₹10 lakh.

The incident took place in 2013 during the Think Fest organised by Tehelka in Goa. The allegation was that Tejpal sexually assaulted his colleague in a lift. After the matter became public, Tejpal resigned as editor of Tehelka on November 20, 2013. He surrendered on November 30 without seeking anticipatory bail. The charge sheet was filed in February 2014, and the Supreme Court granted him bail on July 1, 2014.

The trial began in September 2017. On May 21, 2021, the Sessions Court acquitted Tejpal, holding in a 527-page judgment that the prosecution had failed to prove the case. The matter subsequently reached the Bombay High Court, which has now reversed that outcome and sentenced him on August 6, 2026.

The next stage will be the Supreme Court. What the final outcome there will be, of course, remains unknown.

But there is another question that deserves attention: Can a justice system that takes thirteen years to reach this stage really be called an effective system of justice?

The allegation concerned an incident that supposedly took place inside an elevator. Yet it has taken thirteen years for the judicial process to reach the present stage. The judgment of the trial court alone runs to 527 pages. And even now, the case is not over.

Meanwhile, both the accused and the survivor have had to spend a substantial part of their lives dealing with the case, along with considerable amounts of money, time and emotional energy.

This raises a larger question about the functioning of our justice system. A criminal justice system must certainly provide every accused person with a fair trial and protect the rights of the survivor. There can be no compromise on either principle. But justice must also be timely. Justice delayed is not merely an administrative failure; prolonged litigation can itself become a form of suffering.

One may argue that a complicated case requires time, that evidence must be examined carefully, and that appeals are an essential part of the judicial process. All of that is true. Yet there must also be a point at which we ask whether the procedures intended to ensure justice have become so prolonged and complicated that they themselves stand in the way of justice.

In a monarchy, where the ruler could pronounce a decision immediately, a case might theoretically be settled in a day—but without the safeguards, fairness and accountability that a modern justice system is expected to provide. Democracy and the rule of law necessarily require due process. The challenge is to make that process both fair and reasonably swift.

The purpose of courts is not merely to produce judgments. It is to deliver justice.

When a case continues for thirteen years, produces hundreds of pages of judgments, passes through several levels of the judicial system, and still has no final conclusion, it is legitimate for society to ask whether something fundamental is wrong with the system.

A justice system should not resemble a patient kept alive indefinitely in a prolonged vegetative state. Justice must be alive, accessible and timely.

Thirteen years. 527 pages. And the case is still not over.

Is this justice?

"Reforming the judiciary is not weakening the judiciary. It is strengthening justice."

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