India, March 10 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday emphasised that the constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial is meant not only to protect undertrials from indefinite incarceration but also to ensure timely justice for victims and their families, as it expressed concern over the prolonged pendency of criminal trials in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Hearing a matter relating to delays in a murder trial, a bench of the court said that it was "extremely disappointed" to learn that as many as 351 sessions trials in the UT have remained pending for more than five years, involving a total of 585 accused persons. What particularly troubled the court was that a majority of these cases -- 235 in all, are still stuck at the stage of r...