New Delhi, May 13 -- The Supreme Court has turned its lens on Uttar Pradesh's deeply burdened criminal justice system, expanding proceedings in a 35-year-old criminal case into a wider judicial examination of staggering pendency, prolonged undertrial incarceration, judicial vacancies and delays in disposal of bail pleas across the state. A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan quashed criminal proceedings pending since 1991 before a court in Prayagraj, observing that the constitutional guarantee of speedy trial under Article 21 cannot be reduced to a "mere platitude". Calling for extensive state-wide data from the Allahabad High Court, the bench indicated that the matter may evolve into a larger continuing mandamus on judicial delays and und- ertrial incarceration in Uttar Pradesh. "35 years for a trial for simple hurt and criminal intimidation is too long a time," noted the court in its judgment, released on Tuesday, while allowing an appeal filed by police officer Kailash Chandra Kapri against the Allahabad High Court's refusal to quash the proceedings. The case arose from a 1989 FIR lodged at GRP Rambagh police station, Prayagraj, alleging that five police constables deployed during Kumbh Mela duty assaulted another constable following a dispute over food in a police mess. Charges were framed under Sections 147, 323 and 504 IPC along with Section 120 of the Railways Act. The bench noted that Kapri was only 22 when the FIR was registered and is now 59, with the trial still incomplete. "The prosecution should not be allowed to become a persecution," it said, adding that keeping an accused in "suspended animation" for decades violates Article 21. The court has sought state-wide data on criminal pendency, undertrial detention, judicial vacancies and pending bail applications....