Govt begins processing amendments to CrPC

Govt begins processing amendments to CrPC
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JULY 10: The Central Government has begun processing amendments, including protections to be accorded to witnesses, in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in line with the suggestions of the Law Commission and in consultation with the states.

The proposed amendments, when carried out in the CrPC, would provide for necessary facilities and protection to the witnesses in criminal cases, an official release said here on Monday.

The Commission in its 154th report had undertaken a comprehensive review of the Code and the report has already been laid in Parliament, the release said.

It cited a recent Supreme Court judgement which balmed unscrupulous lawyers and the courts for ill-treatment meted out to witnesses in criminal cases.

The release said "In a recent judgement the Supreme Court has observed that it has become more or less a fashion to have a criminal case adjourned again and again till the witness tires and gives up."

"It is a game of unscrupulous lawyers to get adjournment on one excuse or other till a witness is won over or is tired. Not only that, a witness is threatened; he is abducted; he is maimed; he is done away with or even bribed," the release quoted the judgement.

Referring to the harassment faced by the witness during the trial due to unchecked and prolonged cross-examination, the court had said "For all these reasons and others, a person abhors becoming a witness."