COMMENT | Justice, as an icon, is represented as a blindfolded woman holding up a scale, symbolising the meting out of judgment solely based on the law and the facts of the case, the societal standing of accuser and accused having no part in the consideration.

Big, small, justice must be, will be served in an even-handed fashion.

There is also the clichéd truism of the wheels of justice grinding slowly but surely.

An ongoing legal case illustrates this.

The alleged offence was committed on Aug 31, 2015.

Till the alleged offender was charged in court on Sept 24, the ensuing three weeks must have involved the police interviewing witnesses and the offender, preparing a report for Bukit Aman that then makes it to the Attorney-General’s Office. He appoints a deputy public prosecutor who starts preparing a case.

People who have had to appear in court soon discover what their lawyers never warn them about – the tedium of waiting four or five hours for their case to be mentioned, which usually leads to a lot of motions (pun intended) being passed from both sides, that lead to new court dates while one party or all think over things.

Days over months and years, getting up early in the morning to drive through heavy traffic in hope of finding a miraculous illegal parking spot outside the Duta court complex.

After who knows how many man/woman/hours spent in court - (as a writer, I miss the time before the repressive climate of political correctness banned "sexist" words like “mankind” and “chairman”) - how many thousands of words spewed, how many trees died to supply the paper for thousands of pages of documents, a magistrate granted an acquittal last year, July 1.

Now the High Court says, on appeal, that the magistrate erred, that the prosecution has a case, so it’s back to square one.

Back to the government asserting that over two years ago, Bilqis Hijjas threatened public order and offended by dropping yellow balloons with inflammatory words like “Justice,” “Democracy,” “Free Media” in the vicinity of the prime minister.

I am sure the learned judge has a legal basis for the calling for a retrial....