The juvenile who is charged with being involved in the gangrape and murderous assault on a 23-year-old medical student on December 16, 2012, and who is no more a juvenile now, can stay an accused for a fortnight more. The juvenile justice board (JJB), which is hearing the case against the boy-turned-man, on Thursday said the verdict in the case would be out only on July 25.

That’s seven months and 11 days since the juvenile, then 17 years and six months according to the JJB, was, along with the others, accused of battering, raping by turn and inserting a rod into her private parts, among other gruesome torture. If the verdict, in a sealed envelope for the fortnight now, is opened on July 25, it would also be just four days shy of seven months since the victim died.

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If seven months are not long enough to figure out if the boy (as against a man) did all this or not, we really do not value time, not to mention life, in this country. And that's a shame.

If the victim’s parents and her friend, who was also battered for the whole duration of the crime – according to the police chargesheet, nearly 40 minutes – and then thrown off the bus naked, feel cheated bit by bit, their hopes going out one more flicker with every day lost, they are not exactly wrong. Their hopes have just been doused by 14 days.

If the whole country, including the government, most of its ministers, opposition parties, the judges and the chief justice of India, sought a fast-track court to try this crime, and other such violent crimes against women, there is a reason for it. It is to deny fruition to the phrase ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Justice, as a whole generation said on the lawns of India Gate, and roads and lanes of Lutyens’ Delhi and many parts of India for days, has to be seen. Here. And now.

When additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna, hearing the case in the Saket fast-track court against the four other accused (the main accused, Ram Singh, who was driving the bus that night) reprimanded the defence lawyer of one of the accused for deliberately delaying proceedings by not appearing in court (this was in April), he was merely voicing the appeal of thousands. Get on with it, please.

Yes, this is India, a country that does not allow or bow down to pressure for kangaroo courts. Yes, this is a country that gives full trial to a terrorist who killed hundreds during the attack on Mumbai in 2008. And yes, never mind the grouse and frustration once in a while, we are all proud of it. But then, get on with it, please.

If you have judged that the accused was a minor when he is alleged to have committed the crime, you also know, dear members of the juvenile justice board, that he can be sent to an observation home for a maximum of three years. This isn’t capital punishment we are dealing with. No one is asking for judicial processes to be thrown out the window. But show some hurry – abiding by the nitty-gritty can come in other, less heinous, cases.