MADURAI: Holding that witnesses on oath who give false statements in courts strike at the root of the criminal justice system and their conduct cannot be condoned, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Swathi, the prime witness in Gokulraj murder case, on charges of lying under oath.A bench of Justices MS Ramesh and N Anand Venkatesh also transferred a perjury proceeding pending against her before the magistrate court in Namakkal to the high court to be heard along with the contempt proceedings.
"It is the statement of the witness made on oath and the materials that are collected during the course of trial that ultimately throw light and enables a judge to conclude as to whether the prosecution has proved the case or not.
It, therefore, becomes imperative that the witness who deposes before the court speaks the truth," the judges observed.
But Swathi, despite several opportunities given by the high court, was either “repeatedly evading from making a true statement” or was “denying certain obvious facts”, the judges said. She even refused to identify her own image when she was shown the CCTV footage collected from the temple where she and the deceased met on a fateful day, they pointed out, adding that when they asked her whether she was being pressured or threatened by anyone from uttering the truth, she replied in the negative.
"A court cannot ignore such conduct which has the propensity to shake the public confidence in judicial institutions. If the courts become lackadaisical in dealing with false statements given by witnesses on oath, it will virtually dislodge the administration of justice and the dignity of the court," the judges said.
Swathi cannot be allowed to completely disown the statement made by her on oath before the magistrate and retract the same at the time of trial without giving a reasonable explanation, the court said.
Citing various judgments of the Supreme Court regarding the power of courts to initiate contempt proceedings against a witness for making a false statement on oath, the judges initiated contempt proceedings against Swathi and called upon her to explain why she must not be punished for contempt of court for having made false statements on oath and interfering with the administration of justice.
The judges further pointed out that there are provisions under Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code for dealing with perjury committed by witnesses. "But, unfortunately, almost all perjury cases never reach their logical end," the judges observed.
Noting that even the perjury proceedings initiated against Swathi for retracting her statement before the magistrate under Section 164 CrPC, is still pending before Judicial Magistrate I of Namakkal, they transferred it to the high court to be merged along with the contempt proceedings initiated by them.
They clarified that perjury is an alternative remedy and it is always open to higher courts to initiate contempt proceedings to ensure that the administration of justice remains unpolluted due to false evidence being tendered before the ‘temple of justice’.
The order was passed while hearing a batch of appeals filed against a judgment passed by a lower court in Madurai in March convicting 10 persons and acquitting five in the murder of a dalit youth V Gokulraj in Namakkal in June 2015. Gokulraj was murdered by a group of caste Hindu men a day after he was seen speaking to Swathi, a caste Hindu woman, at a temple in Tiruchengode.
While the convicts filed appeals challenging their conviction and life sentence, the CB-CID and Gokulraj’s mother Chitra filed separate appeals challenging the acquittal of the five accused. Noting that Swathi had turned hostile during trial, the judges recalled her to the witness box last week.
Since she claimed that she did not meet the deceased in the temple and refused to identify her image from the video evidence shown to her, the judges initiated the contempt proceedings. The court adjourned the appeals for two weeks.