In Brief
A government employee sought to prosecute officials for allegedly giving false evidence in show-cause affidavits filed in a High Court contempt proceeding. He filed a private complaint before a lower court, which accepted it and issued summons. The High Court quashed the order. The Supreme Court held that offences of false evidence under Section 193 IPC cannot be prosecuted via private complaint. Section 195(1)(b)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code mandatorily restricts such prosecutions to those initiated by the court where the alleged offence occurred, following the procedure in Section 340. The appellant's appeal was dismissed, finding the High Court rightly quashed the Magistrate's order.
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