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Perjury proceedings can be instituted upon complaint by strangers to the proceeding: Kerala High Court
A petition was filed before the Kerala High court opposing the dismissal of a plea by the Magistrate court.
Initially, an application was filled in a Thiruvananthapuram Magistrate court under Section 340(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), where the petitioner claimed that the respondent was guilty of an offense of perjury punishable under Section 193 of The Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Judicial Magistrate, however, dismissed the plea stating that the court did not have the jurisdiction to try the case. The petitioner thereafter filed the present petition in the HC under Article 227 of the Indian Constitution and challenged the Magistrate’s order for its ‘legality and propriety.’
The petitioner submitted that Section 195 (1)(b)(i) of CrPC allows the Magistrate to initiate proceedings against the respondents and claimed that by dismissing the application, the court failed to exercise its jurisdiction. However, the respondents contended that the petitioner is a stranger to the case in which perjury by the respondent is alleged and hence, has no locus standi.
Noting the submissions of the parties and the reasons for dismissal of the application by the Magistrate court, the HC stated that prosecution of an individual for perjury is done so in order to defend the ‘prestige and dignity’ of the Court and to ensure that judicial process is duly complied with. It was further stated that this issue of perjury is essentially the court’s matter and not a matter for the party, hence, in such complaints, the complainant is perceived to have a role of an informant. The court relied on the holdings in a similar case, Natarajan v. Subba Rao (A.I.R. 2003 S.C. 541), wherein it was held that the wordings of Section 340 of CrPC, clearly indicate that any citizen can approach the court where the offense was committed and set the law in motion.
Hence, the court in the present case held that the Judicial Magistrate had the jurisdiction to accept the plea and the court was directed to consider the original petition under Section 340 of CrPC.
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