What year was Machal Lalung finally released?

2005

The correct answer is Option 4 - 2005

Machal Lalung was 23 when he was arrested. A resident of Chuburi village of Morigaon district of Assam, Machal was charged of causing grievous injuries. He was found mentally too unstable to stand trial and was sent as under trial to Lok Priya Gopinath Bordoloi Mental Hospital in Tejpur for treatment. Machal was treated successfully and doctors wrote twice to jail authorities in 1967 and 1996 that he was fit to stand trial. But no one paid any attention. Machal Lalung remained in “judicial custody.’’ Machal Lalung was released in July 2005. He was 77 then. He spent 54 years under custody during which his case never came up for hearing. He was freed when a team appointed by the National Human Rights Commission intervened after an inspection of undertrials in the State.

Machal’s entire life was wasted because a proper trial against him never took place. Our Constitution gives every citizen the right to ‘life and liberty’: this means that every citizen must also have the right to fair and speedy trial. Machal’s case shows what happens when rights granted by the Constitution are not available in practice.