- Perjury eats away at the criminal justice system
By Abdul Rasool Syed
Perjury is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or of falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding. It is the one of key impediments in the dispensation of justice in our country. It is so dangerous that it alters the whole course of justice by rendering the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty. This is against the spirit of executing justice and amounts to mocking justice. It provides people a reason to point fingers at the credibility of the judicial system.
Realising the gravity of situation, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has embarked on ridding the justice system of false testimony. In an address on to the malaise of perjury, remarked that the people of the Indian subcontinent are such pathological liars that even on the deathbed, they lie; therefore, the validity of a “dying declaration” in such a milieu of prevarication becomes questionable.
The Supreme Court recently released its detailed judgment on the legal status of false testimony, ordering legal proceedings under perjury against any witness found to have resorted to deliberate falsehood.
The order, penned by Chief Justice Khosa, rejects false testimony by a witness and declares that the rule falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (false in one thing, false in everything) will henceforth be an integral part of jurisprudence in criminal cases. The judgment ordered courts not to allow any leniency against those resorting to false testimonies and to reject testimonies if even part of them were based on lies.
“… A judicial system which permits deliberate falsehood is doomed to fail and a society which tolerates it is destined to self-destruct. Truth is the foundation of the criminal justice system and justice is the core and bedrock of a civilised society and, thus, any compromise on truth amounts to a compromise on a society’s future as a just, fair and civilised society,” the order read.
“Therefore, we declare that the rule falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus shall henceforth be an integral part of our jurisprudence in criminal cases and the same shall be given effect to, followed and applied by all the courts in the country.”
The judgment further stated, “It is also directed that a witness found by a court to have resorted to a deliberate falsehood on a material aspect shall, without any latitude, invariably be proceeded against for committing perjury.”
Testifying falsehood is indeed a colossal crime and theologically a great sin. Virtually every religion shows humongous aversion to. Prohibition of perjury is one of the Ten Commandments. In the Old Testament, we read: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16)
The New Testament tells us that Jesus prohibited perjury. In the New Testament, we read the following: “He said to Him, ‘Which ones?’ Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness.’” (Matthew 19:18)
The Quran orders Muslims to avoid perjury. In the Qur’an is the following verse: …therefore avoid the uncleanness of the idols and avoid false words. (Al-Hajj 22:30)
The Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) considered perjury one of the worst sins. Abu Bakrah Nufai’ bin Al-Harith reported that the Messenger of Allah said, “Shall I not inform you of the biggest of the major sins?” The Messenger of Allah asked this question thrice. People said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.” He said, “Ascribing partners to Allah, and to be undutiful to your parents”. The Messenger of Allah sat up from his reclining position and said, “And I warn you against giving forged statement and a false testimony; I warn you against giving forged statement and a false testimony.” The Messenger of Allah kept repeating that warning till we wished he would stop. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Prophet Muhammad also indicated that perjury renders fasting valueless. He once said: “Whoever does not abandon falsehood in word and action, and then Allah does not care if he leaves his food and drink.” (Al-Bukhari)
Judges must come down with a heavy hand against perjurers as well as their manipulators and abettors; failing in doing so would ultimately result in loss of the judiciary’s credibility
Furthermore, giving false evidence is a criminal offence under PPC (Pakistan penal code), punishable with life imprisonment or rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. However, laws convicting those found to be perpetrators of perjury are hardly ever applied and therefore, the perjurers go scot-free in our courts. In a telling statement on judicial reforms, the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) Registrar submitted a reply last year that “the SHC and its subordinate courts have not prosecuted even a single individual over the past three years for perjury under Sections 193-196 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).” Resorting to mendacity in court is a grave criminal offence because it undermines the very purpose of the justice system that is to deliver justice to the people without creating iota of doubt on its integrity and credibility.
The Supreme Court in a case reported as PLD 1984 Supreme Court Page 44 observed that perjury is one of the most heinous social and moral offences. It is not only an offence punishable under the law, as stipulated under Section 194 PPC but also is against the injunctions of Holy Qur’an (Sura Al-Nisa: 135). It is an evil which tends to disrupt the very basis of social order and make a mockery of the judicial system, be it Islamic or otherwise. Any person who deliberately tells a lie during solemn proceedings of a Court of Law, knowing fully well that he is thereby likely to ruin the life or reputation of an innocent person or put his liberty into jeopardy by falsely involving him in a criminal case, does not deserve any leniency and ought never to be let off lightly.
Additionally, Perjury also fosters corruption, giving rise to a malady eating away at the very substance of a State, its institutions and its people. Those rich and mighty who amass wealth through illegal means, rest assured that they would remain untouched by the law; are cocksure about easily finding false testifiers who for minuscule pecuniary gains, would lend them a helping hand in papering over their crime.
Those committing perjury, including distorting and destroying of evidence by the law enforcement agencies, must be punished by stiff imprisonment and heavy fines. The punishment should be exactly what the accused would have got if the evidence had been held to be correct. If based on the statements of the witnesses committing perjury, the accused would go to the gallows, shouldn’t those giving false evidence also face the gallows themselves? Judges must come down with a heavy hand against perjurers as well as their manipulators and abettors; failing in doing so would ultimately result in loss of the judiciary’s credibility.
