Above: A procession taking place for the safety of women. Photo: UNI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 29) observed that when there are some specific sections in CrPC to deal with the registration of FIR in cases pertaining to Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, there was no need to frame guidelines on it.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud said that it was not proper for the Court to tell the government to set up a new pattern for 498A.

The Court further observed “if they set up a new pattern it will lead to much confusion in the FIR process related to Section 498A cases”.

The case has been listed for next hearing in the third week of January.

It may be recalled that on October 13, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had decided to revisit the July 27 ruling delivered by the court in the Rajesh Sharma vs State of UP case.

While hearing the Rajesh Sharma vs State of UP case, another SC bench comprising of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit on July 27 had laid down safeguards to prevent misuse of Section 498A. It had issued a new set of directives to prevent the misuse of the section.

One of the directives had called for formation of Family Welfare Committees (FWC) in each district of each state that will have the job of verifying each complaint. Also, no arrests should be made without verification.

—India Legal Bureau