Introduction to Perjury in Indian law

In this presentation, we go through what is perjury, what is the punishment for perjury as per Indian law and the procedure to file a perjury application

1. Introduction to Perjury in Indian law Siva Prasad Bose

2. What is Perjury Perjury is the offense of knowingly lying to the court, or intentionally giving a false or misleading statement to the court, whether as an oral statement or declaration given under oath or a written statement in an affidavit or used as evidence in a court case. The statement should be one that is known to be false by the person at that time. Encyclopedia Britannica: “ the giving of false testimony under oath on an issue or point of inquiry regarded as material .” False evidence and lying under oath breaks the integrity of the judicial system

3. Indian laws related to Perjury P erjury is not a crime per se as per Indian Penal Code or IP H owever, giving false evidence is a crime and is covered under section 191 of IPC Whoever, being legally bound by an oath or by an express provision of law to state the truth, or being bound by law to make a declaration upon any subject, makes any statement which is false, and which he either knows or be­lieves to be false or does not believe to be true, is said to give false evidence Punishment: imprisonment upto seven years plus fine

4. CRPC 340 and 195 Sections 340 and 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or CRPC refer to the procedure to be followed by the court to determine if perjury has occurred and should be persecuted.   Section 195 of the CRPC lays down rules to be followed by the court to decide whether any prosecution is necessary or not for the offense alleged under it S ection 340 of CRPC lays down the steps for the court to initiate prosecution as per section 195.

5. Procedure for filing a perjury application Person gives a complaint in form of an affidavit alleging perjury to the court, along with the evidence on which the complaint is based. The person filing the perjury complaint can be either a party to the court case in which the perjury has occurred, or else it can also be filed by any interested person. The court has to investigate whether an inquiry should be made and whether to persecute or not, in the interest of justice. In particular, one of the conditions for sanctioning prosecution is that it is not to be used as a means for taking revenge. The accused person is allowed to reply to the points raised, based on which court will reach verdict whether to go to trial.

6. False complaint of perjury If however, the complaint of perjury is found to be false and malicious, proceedings can be started against the person who gave the false complaint of perjury under section 211 of the Indian penal code. The section 211 states “ False charge of offence made with intent to injure.—Whoev­er, with intent to cause injury to any person, institutes or causes to be instituted any criminal proceeding against that person, or falsely charges any person with having committed an offence, knowing that there is no just or lawful ground for such proceeding or charge against that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both ”