New Delhi, July 16 -- Nearly half a century after a murder in a Uttar Pradesh village, and 45 years after six men were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the killing, the Supreme Court on Wednesday finally brought the criminal case to a close, acquitting three surviving appellants in a judgment that lays bare the extraordinary delays that continue to plague India's criminal justice system. The judgment brought the curtains down on litigation that outlasted half the lives of those involved. Of the six men originally convicted, only three lived to hear the Supreme Court pronounce on their innocence. Three others died without seeing the final outcome of the case. The case traversed every rung of the judicial hierarchy over 49 ye...