Govt begins processing amendments to CrPC

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 quot;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.quot;

quot;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,quot; 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 quot;For all these reasons and others, a person abhors becoming a witness.quot;