BPCL submitted false and fabricated materials as a piece of evidence: Can I initiate a criminal proceeding against BPCL? I am a dealer of Bharat petroleum corporation ltd and running a petrol pump for 56 long years with clean records. I was not paid the LFR / commission for 25 years as agreed by BPCL which was paid for the first 2 years at the time of resettlement and quoting the Policy had withdrawn. The value of the LFR amounts to 2 crores with interest. The BPCL officials forced me to lease out the land which I was not willing to do. The Territory manager stopped the supplies on 23.06.2022 and asked not to use the facilities like pumps, tanks and equipment belonging to BPCL. They planned to expel me from my property and to operate the petrol pump under Company controlled basis.
On 01.07.2022 I remove the facilities/ items like Pump, Underground tanks, electrical item belongings of BPCL and kept outside the licensed premise and informed BPCL to clear the items which valued ₹ 17,31,138.00 as per their records and informed to clear the items with in 15 days which was not taken yet. Now the BPCL filed a damage claim for ₹ 17,31,138.00 in the civil court.
A valuation certificate was produced by the BPCL by the manager engineers Mr. Rupam quoting that the items were inspected by visiting the retail outlets site on19.09.2022 and certified that all the line items mentioned in above are not reusable and damaged beyond repairs.
We claim it is fabricating false evidence, false entry in any book, record, document, containing a false statement. This certificate is produced before the court for evidence in a judicial proceeding. He is a public servant. Whether we can file a criminal case in the magistrate court against him.
Justification: The said removed items were not in the premises as mentioned in the certificate. The premises were locked with CCTV and a security guard. The certificate was given to ₹17,31,138.00 of the entire value of items quoting which were damaged and beyond usable condition. The list of items varies physically as time to time replaced items are not updated by BPCL in their records and this proves that the certificate was done on their table. We have enough evidence to prove the same.
Kindly guide us in the matters whether we can file a criminal complaint against the Engineer and Territory Manager who instructed us to do the inspection as claimed by engineer Mr XXX.
It implies from the facts of your case that BPCL has filed false and fabricated evidence in support of its claim for damages. If you have evidence to prove that materials produced by the Plaintiff (BPCL) in support of its claim are false and fabricated, the Court has the power to initiate criminal proceedings against the Plaintiff for the offence of perjury.
The plaintiff has given that statement on oath. A person swearing to a false oath or affidavit is guilty of perjury punishable under section 193 of the Indian Penal Code. In R. Karuppan, Advocate, Suo Motu Proceedings against In re, (2001) 5 SCC 289 the supreme court has held that:
In India, law relating to the offence of perjury is given a statutory definition under Section 191 and Chapter XI of the Penal Code, 1860, incorporated to deal with the offences relating to giving false evidence against public justice. The offences incorporated under this Chapter are based upon recognition of the decline of moral values and erosion of sanctity of oath. Unscrupulous litigants are found daily resorting to utter blatant falsehood in the courts which has, to some extent, resulted in polluting the judicial system…………Effective and stern action is required to be taken for preventing the evil of perjury, concededly let loose by vested interest and professional litigants. The mere existence of the penal provisions to deal with perjury would be a cruel joke with the society unless the courts stop to take an evasive recourse despite proof of the commission of the offence under Chapter XI of the Penal Code, 1860. If the system is to survive, effective action is the need of the time.
R. Karuppan, Advocate, Suo Motu Proceedings against In re, (2001) 5 SCC 289 [page 294]
In B.K. Gupta v. Damodar H. Bajaj, (2001) 9 SCC 742 the Supreme Court has opined that there are two conditions on fulfilment of which a complaint can be filed against a person who has given a false affidavit or evidence in a proceeding before a court. The first condition being that a person has given a false affidavit in a proceeding before the court and, secondly, in the opinion of the court it is expedient in the interest of justice to make an enquiry against such a person in relation to the offence committed by him.
Therefore, it is recommended that you file an application with the court, bringing attention to the false statements made by the plaintiff in their sworn affidavit. You can also request the court to take action under section 195 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and initiate criminal proceedings against the plaintiff for committing perjury.
