MADURAI: The registrar general of the Madras High Court told the Madurai Bench recently that the HC’s rule committee is actively considering whether trial courts could be instructed not to require witnesses to reveal their caste and religion in their depositions and other documents.
The standing counsel of the registrar general made the statement before a bench comprising Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete, which was hearing a PIL petition filed by OR Gokul Abimanyu seeking a direction to trial courts to the above effect.
In the previous hearing on November 4, the judges noted that Rule 42 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, 2019, prescribed the details required to be incorporated in Judicial Form No 53. Judicial Form No. 53 asks witnesses to disclose details about their caste and religion, contradicting Rule 42, they added and held that the petitioner was right in requesting to amend the same.
When this was pointed out to the standing counsel, he informed that the matter had been placed before the rule committee for necessary amendments.