UNB, Dhaka :Observing that there are some black provisions in some laws as those were enacted from colonial point of view, Chief Justice SK Sinha on Tuesday said these provisions should be removed.”Our Evidence Act is good to a great extent. However, we’ve some laws which were formulated upholding the thinking and spirit of colonialism when people’s welfare and betterment had not been taken into account,” he said.The Chief Justice was speaking at a ceremony marking the unveiling of a book titled ‘Landmark verdicts in repression against women: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan’.Manusher Jonno Foundation arrangedtheprogramme at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium. Deploring the 155 clause of the Evidence Act, SK Sinha said, “A woman’ s chastity is snatched. Even the defence interrogates her about her character. What can be more pathetic than that?”Calling for raising a demand for amending the clause, he said one of the four options of the clause stipulates: ‘When a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the prosecutrix was of generally immoral character.’Citing the incident when a girl died of cardiac arrest at the dock in India after facing such questions, he urged the women leaders to strongly raise the demand for amending the laws.Supreme Court judges Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Md Imman Ali, Barrister Amir Ul Islam and Barrister Sigma Huda, among others, spoke on the occasion.
