SWORN AFFIDAVIT
CONTEXT:
- Recently, Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of the Hiranandani Group has given a “sworn affidavit” to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha making a series of allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra and several other individuals.
WHAT IS SWORN AFFIDAVIT?
- A sworn statement also known as a sworn affidavit, is a written document that is signed and certified by the person making the statement in the presence of a person authorized to administer oaths.
- According to Institute of the Cornell Law School an affidavit is a “sworn statement a person makes before a notary or officer of the court outside of the court asserting that certain facts are true to the best of that person’s knowledge”.
- Supreme Court in Chhotan Prasad Singh vs. Hari Dusadh Case said “it is an essential characteristic of an affidavit that it should be made on oath or affirmation before a person having authority to administer the oath or affirmation.”
- Section 3(3) of India’s General Clauses Act, 1897, defines an “affidavit” as an “affirmation and declaration in the case of persons by law allowed to affirm or declare instead of swearing”.
- Sworn statements are often used in legal proceedings as a way to provide testimony in writing.
WHAT IS AN APPROVER AFFIDAVIT ?
- In legal terms, an “approver” is a person who is directly or indirectly concerned, involved or privy to an offence.
- An accomplice or an accused in a case can later turn approver, siding with the prosecution in return for a lesser sentence or pardon.
- Section 306 of the CrPC has provisions for tender of pardon for an accomplice in a crime “on condition of his making a full and true disclosure of the whole of the circumstances within his knowledge relative to the offence”.
Syllabus: Prelims; POLITY & GOVERNANCE