India, Aug. 5 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted a man who spent 22 years in prison in a triple murder case, holding that the evidence against him was "unreliable" and expressing concern that a procedural lapse by the Orissa HC had kept him behind bars for an additional decade.

Lamenting that "access to justice continues to elude the marginalised sections of society," a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran acquitted Arjun Jani, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 in connection with a 2004 triple murder case. The court also directed the district administration and legal services authority to help rehabilitate and resettle him.

The bench criticised the Orissa High Court for dismissi...