Perjury by Minors

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Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, states the punishment for giving false evidence in a judicial proceeding. Assume – A minor girl files a rape case against a boy. FIR gets registered in the handwriting of the victim. Under Sec 164 Code of Criminal Procedure, a statement is also recorded against the accused. During the court proceedings, the girl states that she was pressurized into filing the complaint and deposes in favour of the accused.
Ques: Can the minor girl be charged under Perjury i.e. giving false evidence under Section 191 of Indian Penal Code?

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Section 191 Indian Penal Code: Giving false evidence
It is stated in the above section that whoever makes any statement which is false, and which she/he either knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, is said to give false evidence.
Section 193 Indian Penal Code: Punishment for giving false evidence
Whoever intentionally gives false evidence in any stage of a judicial proceeding, or fabricates false evidence for the purpose of being used in any stage of a judicial proceeding, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years.

BUT, as stated in Section 2(d) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) – any person below the age of 18 years is a child.
The above case will come under the purview of Section 22(2) of the POCSO Act which states that if a false complaint has been made or false information has been provided by a child; no punishment shall be imposed on a child.

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This question is divided into THREE parts i.e., firstly, the minor girl filed a false complaint. Secondly, she was pressured to file a false complaint. Thirdly, against whom the false complaint was filed was innocent, how
1st Part: – As per Section 191 of The Indian Penal Code, any person who makes any statement that is false, and which he either knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, is said to give false evidence. Concerning Section 193, the person who intentionally gives false evidence in any stage of a judicial proceeding, or fabricates false evidence to be used in any stage of a judicial proceeding, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years.
But in this question, the wrongdoer is a minor girl child. This provision of question will be dealt with keeping in mind Section 22 (2) of the POSCO Act, which states that if a false complaint is made or false information is provided by a child; no punishment shall be imposed on a child.
2nd Part¬- According to Section 195A, any person who threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property or to the person or reputation of anyone in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause that person to give false evidence shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both. Moreover, if an innocent person is convicted and sentenced in consequence of such false evidence, with death or imprisonment for more than seven years, the person who threatens shall be punished with the same punishment and sentence in the same manner and to the same extent such innocent person is punished and sentenced.
3rd Part- The person against whom a false FIR is filed can appeal to the High Court for quashing the false FIR lodged against him under Section 482 of CrPC.

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Can the minor girl be charged under Perjury i.e. giving false evidence under Section 191 of Indian Penal Code?
Ans- Section 191 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 starts with ‘Whoever’ means it doesnot mentions the gender and the age of the person thsu anybody can be held liable under this section if he/she falls within the essentials of the section i.e.
• If the person is legally bound by a oath or express provision of law to state truth
or
• If the person is bound by law to make a declartion on a subject
Thus, if such person knowingly state the informtion wrong than they will be held laible under prejury. But, if the person falls under the Section 82 and Section 83 of the IPC than there can be change in circumstance.
Section 82 of IPC tells that any act which has been done by a child under 7 years of age is not an offence as it is believed that he is incapable of committing crime i.e. doli incapax and thus he cannot be prosecuted regardless of his crime while section 83 of IPC talks about that a child of above 7 years while under 12 years of age that nothing is an offence done by them if child is not intellectually mature i.e. they have not attained sufficient maturity and are incapable of understanding the nature, circumstances of the crime and the consequences of their act. But if he has the sufficient maturity then he can be held liable.
Thus, a minor girl above 12 years can be held liable for prejury but if her age is under 7-12 years than section 83 of IPC will be applied.

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