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
• Perjury is not a crime per se as per Indian Penal Code or IP
• However, 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
• Section 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”