NEW DELHI: Some may call it a burning example of a snail-paced justice delivery system while others may term it as “law catching up with the culprit when he is at his weakest”.However one may describe it, a person who committed the crime as a hot-headed college student, now dreads spending the rest of his life as an ailing senior citizen behind bars. The SC has now given him the option between life term or seven years in jail.A union election-related fight between two students of LokManya Inter College in Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh in 1979 led to 21-year-old Hari Shankar Rai stabbing a 19-year-old Krishna Kumar, who died of injuries on Dec 14, 1979. The trial court in 1983 found Rai guilty under Section 304-I of IPC and sentenced him to four-year imprisonment.A person lost his life, there should be adequate punishment for the crime: SCThe Allahabad HC took 41 years to decide the appeal filed by the state challenging the trial court decision and seeking his conviction for murder. Rai had appealed against his conviction. In May last year, the HC found the evidence strong enough to convict Rai under Section 302 and awarded life imprisonment. Rai appealed against the HC judgment before the SC.A bench of CJI B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran told the 67-year-old Rai that even if his conviction for murder is altered to that under Section 304-I, he cannot escape with a punishment of mere four years imprisonment. “A person lost his life and whatever may be, there should be adequate punishment for the crime,” the CJI said.His counsel said the man is now 67-year-old suffering from ailments and pleaded for mercy on the ground that his wife is suffering from cancer, needing constant care. But the bench remained firm and refused to grant him bail during the pendency of his appeal in the SC.Refusing to show mercy and warning the convict’s counsel that arguing for acquittal, in the face of a well-reasoned HC judgment, would result in dismissal of the appeal, CJI Gavai said, “If you are agreeable, we will convert the conviction under Sec 302 to that under Sec 304-I (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) with seven year imprisonment.”SC also asked the state counsel Tulika Mukherjee to take instructions regarding the present relationship between the families of the victim and the accused.