Retired Justice of the Supreme Court B.N. Srikrishna spoke about the low conviction rate in rape cases and said, “There is no doubt that rape laws are being misused in the country.” He also advocated that the name of the accused be kept anonymous.
The former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court on Friday said, “Statistics show that even after the amendment of rape laws [after the Nirbhaya rape case], there have been lesser number of convictions. It is time that rape cases be looked at in a very objective manner. We need to question — is the woman really subjected to cruelty and atrocities? Otherwise, in the general course of things, the accused is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty should apply. However, in rape cases, whatever the woman says is treated as the gospel truth. But that is not the intention of the law. It is not the way to empower women.”
He was talking at the screening of documentary film India’s Sons, directed by Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj and Neeraj Kumar, which showed stories of some innocent men falsely accused of rape and later acquitted.
