Drastic measures to be adopted to eradicate evils of perjury, fraud and fabrication: Karnataka High Court imposes costs of Rs 1 lakh

Drastic measures will have to be adopted to eradicate the evils of perjury, fraud & fabrication in courts, the Karnataka High Court recently opined, after noting a rise in the number of unscrupulous litigants [Veerabhadraiah Swamy vs Veerupakshi and ors]. .“We are pained to see cases of the kind coming in considerable numbers nowadays; something has to be done to eradicate the evil of perjury, fraud & fabrication; a mere non-suiting of the unscrupulous litigants by throwing their case papers out through the court window would be militantly insufficient; something more drastic needs to be devised, so that message reaches out loudly to the unscrupulous class," a Bench of Justices Krishna S Dixit and Pradeep Singh Yerur lamented..The Court made these observations while setting aside an appeal moved by a claimant in a motor vehicle case seeking an advancement in the compensation awarded to him by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT)..The claimant, who had a medical history of coronary problems, allegedly met with a vehicular accident in August 2014. He was treated at the Government College & Hospital, which stated in his wound certificate that the “injuries are simple in nature".Later, the claimant moved to Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences at Bengaluru, wherein he had admittedly undergone a coronary-related operation.In his affidavit, he had stated that the said accident resulted in severe injuries on his chest, head, forehead, nose, face, abdomen, hands and legs, and that all this happened only because of the accident which had “decreased his life span due to heart injury”. For the same, he was awarded compensation by the MACT. He then moved the High Court seeking an enhancement in the compensation awarded to him..The High Court, however, failed to see merit in the submissions made by the claimant."All this is false, to say the least; neither in his claim petition nor in his affidavit evidence, he has mentioned anything about his pre-existing heart ailment; as already mentioned above, he had not suffered any injury to the chest, much less heart nor to any vital organ; had it been otherwise, the Wound Certificate at Ex.P.5 at Ex.P.5 would have mentioned the same...”The Court was further keen to note that the claimant had suppressed the reimbursement of huge expenses incurred by him for the heart treatment under the Yashashvini Co-operative Health Care for Farmers, a welfare scheme of the government, both in his claim petition and affidavit evidence..An anguished Bench went on to record how petitions such as the present one waste the previous time and effort of the Court. Therefore, stringent measures will have to be taken to curb the same.With these observations, the Court dismissed the said petition by imposing costs of Rs. 1,00,000 on the appellant. "In this case, we are made to spend more than an hour of valuable time in turning every page of the original Trial Court Record that runs into 656 pages, keeping other older cases at a bay; it is a sheer waste of huge public time & money occasioned by this perjured case of the appellant; this is not a happy thing to happen; we are of the considered view that this appeal should be dismissed with exemplary & penal cost of Rs.1,00,000.".[Read Judgment]