GAJADHAR Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 1. The applicant has been convicted for swearing a false affidavit and filing the same before a Judge of this Court. He has been sentenced Under Section 181, Penal Code, to four months' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rupees 50.

(2.) ALTHOUGH the applicant contended before the Magistrate and in appeal that he was unaware of the nature of the affidavit to which he was swearing and that contention was set out at length in the memorandum of appeal, that ground has wisely been abandoned and I am asked, sitting in revision, to hold that the offence would be sufficiently expiated by the application of Section 562, Criminal P.C., more particularly as the applicant has already served six weeks of his sentence. I am unable to agree that Section 562, Criminal P.C., would be in any way appropriate in the circumstances. A false affidavit was deliberately sworn. If that affidavit had been accepted the applicant would have gained a right as against the opposite party to which the law did not entitle him namely the revival of an appeal which had abated. The statements in the affidavit related to facts which to the applicant's own knowledge, were untrue and in respect of which, in his official capacity, he had made a contrary report. His action in swearing a false affidavit, was deliberate and the motive obvious.