Retired Supreme Court judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna has said that there is “no doubt that rape laws are being misused in the country.” He has also advocated that the name of the accused be kept anonymous.

“Statistics show that even after the amendment of rape laws, there have been less 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,” the former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court said on Friday at the screening of the documentary film India’s Sons, directed by Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj and Neeraj Kumar, which showed stories of some innocent men being falsely accused of rape and later getting acquitted.

“I have come across cases of rape when I was a judge, where either in a consensual relationship or in co-habitation for a long time, there is a disagreement and the woman cries rape. There are instances where a secret affair is going on, people get to know of it and in order to come out of the ignominy of it, she cries rape,” Justice Srikrishna said.

“What happens is that the man is accused of rape, gets arrested, newspapers carry it on the front page, but when there is an acquittal, it is not carried in the same way. This is terrible,” he added, saying the balance is tilted in favour of women in such cases.

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