Quoting lines on life imprisonment from Anton Chekhov’s famous short story, The Bet, the Delhi High Court recently ordered the release of two life-term convicts, pointing to their “sustained” good conduct in prison. The ruling came in a case where two men were convicted and imprisoned for life in rape cases dating back to the 1990s. One of the convicts had committed the crime in 1992 and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also read | No law mandates quota in Akshaya Centre allotment: Kerala High Court dismisses pleaThe other convict was punished for the crime in 1997 and has been serving life imprisonment. The counsel also contended that granting remission to the convicts only because they were imprisoned for a long time would hurt the society at large.