Chandigarh: A 97-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Punjab and Haryana High Court here for a murder he committed in 1993, marking what is perhaps a first in legal history.

Kartar Singh, a resident of Mari Buchhian village in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, was on Thursday convicted of the murder of his neighbour Surjit Kaur in their village following a minor dispute over a vegetable garden.

The court directed the Punjab police to put Singh behind bars rejecting his counsel's plea to acquit him on the ground of his age.

After giving its verdict, the court asked the state counsel to first verify if Singh was still alive.