On June 26, 1996, Ali Mohammad Mir, a contractor, was abducted by some gunmen from his residence in the Nishat area of Srinagar. He was later killed and his body allegedly thrown into the Jhelum river.Over 30 years since the abduction and subsequent killing of Mir, his body remains untraceable and the trial in the case is continuing even as three of the six accused named in the FIR, registered in 2007, are dead. Of the three surviving accused, two have been in jail since 2008, and the third one was arrested in December 2025.Mir’s is among the 15 of the oldest cases in which the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has given a timeline of four to five months to three years for the conclusion of trials. The HC order comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s criticism of prolonged criminal trials and incarceration of accused in J&K jails. The HC has identified a total of 351 pending cases and directed the trial courts concerned to ensure their speedy disposal.Also Read | 2,500 detained across Kashmir in crackdown over cop’s killingThe Registrar General of the High Court, M K Sharma, in an order dated June 25, has directed trial courts in J&K and Ladakh to fast-track the 336 remaining criminal cases in which the accused have been in jail for exceptionally long periods of 14–15 years.Significantly, in two of the 15 oldest cases shortlisted by the High Court, the accused, Ghulam Nabi from Doda, has been in jail for over 15 years, a period longer than the punishment prescribed for the offences he is accused of.According to official records, Ghulam Nabi is facing trial for offences under Ranbir Penal Code’s Section 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 212 (harbouring an offender), 216 (harbouring an offender who has escaped from police custody) and 7/27 of the Arms Act (illegal possession and use of prohibited weapon). The maximum punishment for these offences prescribed at the time of commission of the offence in 2010 was 10 years, said his counsel Pervez Ahmed.Ghulam Nabi is also undergoing trial in another case registered at Doda police station in 2010 under the provisions of Section 4/5 of the Explosive Substances Act (ESA) and Section 7/27 of the Arms Act. The maximum punishment prescribed for these offences was 10 years in 2010.Story continues below this adAccording to the records, Ghulam Nabi is also named along with one Khursheed Ahmad in another FIR registered at Doda police station in 2009 for offences under RPC’s Section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 379 (theft), besides Section 7/27 of the Arms Act (illegal possession and use of prohibited weapon).Must Read | Denial of legal assistance: Why Supreme Court set aside death sentence in 1996 Dausa blast caseAnother one among the 15 shortlisted cases is of Mohammad Shafeeq Awan, a truck driver from Muzaffarabad, who has been in jail for over 12 years. Booked for offences under Sections 8, 21 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Awan was arrested on January 17, 2014 after the police intercepted his truck at the Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri and seized 114 bricks of acetyl morphine (heroin) weighing one kg each concealed in 148 sacks of almonds.The seizure led to a major diplomatic and trade standoff between India and Pakistan, resulting in temporary suspension of trade and travel between the people of J&K and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.The Uri police had also arrested Showkat Habib Pohlu, a trader from Bandipore, as the illegal cargo had been sent under his name.Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of one more trader, Tariq Ahmad Sheikh, whom the police said had used Pohlu’s name to allegedly broker the shipment for drug networks in Punjab and Delhi. However, while Pohlu and Sheikh were granted bail by the court, Awan continues to be in jail.Story continues below this adAccording to officials, the maximum punishment to a person in the event of seizure of commercial quantity of narcotics at that time was imprisonment up to 20 years.In April this year, the Supreme Court, while hearing a Special Leave Petition (criminal) Anoop Singh Versus Union Territory of J&K, had directed the J&K and Ladakh High Court to look into the matter and take corrective measures for expeditious disposal of cases wherein the trial has been pending for over five years. Earlier in February, it had criticised the prosecution and the administration for keeping a murder accused in jail for seven years without completing the trial.Must Read | ‘Criminal justice system no tool for vendetta’: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court quashes ‘carbon copy’ FIR against Delhi manNoting that in seven years, the prosecution examined only seven of 17 witnesses across 82 hearings, the Apex Court expressed shock over the delay in trial and said it was a “mockery” of the right to a speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution. It directed the Home Secretary of J&K to explain delays and submit records of all criminal trials in the UT where undertrials have been in custody for five years or more.As per official records, in several cases, the undertrials have been in jail for 10-15 years; a few others have spent over 18 years in incarceration.Story continues below this adThe High Court in its order has asked the trial courts to avoid unnecessary delays, except in exceptional circumstances, list these cases atop the daily regular list and take appropriate steps to secure the attendance of witnesses. It has also asked them to make full use of videoconferencing and other electronic modes permissible under law for recording evidence and ensure that absence or non-cooperation of defence counsel does not stall trials by providing legal aid wherever necessary.