NEW DELHI: Threatening a witness to give false evidence is a cognisable offence, authorising the police to directly register an FIR and investigate, without waiting for a formal complaint from a court, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe said, “Section 195-A (Offence of threatening witnesses) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was conceptualised as an offence distinct and different from those under Sections 193, 194, 195 and 196 IPC.
An offence under Section 195-A IPC was a cognisable offence and pertained to inducing a person to give false evidence by intimidating him or her with threat of injury either to his or her person or reputation or property or to the person or reputation of anyone in whom that person is interested.”
While setting aside the Kerala HC’s decision which held that an FIR for offence pertaining to threatening a witness under Section 195-A of the IPC cannot be registered by the police, the apex court added this section was deliberately conceptualised as a distinct offence with a different procedural pathway and being a cognisable offence, the police is empowered to directly register FIR based on threatened witness statements.
The SC did not agree with the HC’s verdict, as it emphasised that requiring a threatened witness to first approach the court for a complaint would be an impractical hurdle.
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