USA, August - 2008
1."Indian Courts are Helpless to Protect 498A Victims" -CJI
India,February- 2009
2."CJI Balakrishnan admits to misuse of dowry laws"
India, September - 2009
3. CJI points to judges’ ignorance - India, September - 2009
CJI Balakrishnan pointed out that Section 498 (A) (anti-dowry law) under CrPC was one of the most abused laws.
“Judges are simply issuing summons and even warrants without properly verifying who are the accused. I have come across such cases in which the accused, sitting in Australia and other countries, are made accused when the case is lodged for the alleged offence of dowry,” he added.
Balakrishnan added that the criminal procedure code was amended for the police to follow certain procedures before arrests. “We have come across cases in which even high court judges are ignorant of the legal value of statements recorded before the police under Section 161 of the Evidence Act for delivering judgments,” he said.
Calling upon lower court judges to be socially sensitive, he asked them to have control over trial proceedings in order to deliver judgments easily. He also asked them to examine eyewitnesses first before examining other witnesses produced by the defence.
