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Amarsang Nathaji (as himself and as Karta and Manager) v. Hardik Harshadbhai Patel and Others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 11120 of 2016)Decided 23 Nov 2016
Civil Appeal No. 11120 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

In a civil suit over an interim injunction, the Gujarat High Court noticed that one of the defendants (the present appellant) had filed two contradictory written statements at different stages of the case. Taking a serious view of this, the High Court, while dismissing the underlying appeal, also directed its Registrar to file a criminal complaint against the appellant under Sections 199/200 IPC (false evidence) by invoking Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The appellant challenged only this direction to prosecute him, not the main injunction ruling (the parties had separately settled that dispute).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that before ordering a Section 340 complaint, a court must properly form an opinion, following the settled two-step test from precedent (including the Constitution Bench ruling in Iqbal Singh Marwah), that there is a prima facie case of a false-evidence offence and that prosecuting it is genuinely expedient in the interests of justice, weighing the effect on the administration of justice rather than merely the fact of a contradiction. Finding that the High Court's order had not properly followed this procedure, and noting that the parties had since reached an amicable settlement on the underlying dispute, the Court held the matter needed to be "laid to rest" and set aside only the direction to initiate Section 340 proceedings.

Lesson Learnt

A court cannot order someone to be criminally prosecuted for giving contradictory statements in litigation just because a contradiction exists: it must follow the proper legal procedure and specifically weigh whether prosecution genuinely serves the interests of justice, not treat it as an automatic consequence.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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