False accusation is when a person is unlawfully prosecuted for a crime. Or those who have been wrongly accused of crimes when those accusations are untrue and have caused damage to the person's reputation.
There are two types of false accusations, libel and slander, which can be prosecuted in court through a lawsuit. Libel occurs when the false accusation is written down, and might occur in a magazine, a newspaper or on the Internet.
There are several legal claims that come into play when someone is falsely accused or improperly prosecuted for a crime. The most common are civil claims based on either defamation of character, or malicious prosecution and/or false imprisonment.
It is also well settled that cognizance is taken of the offence and not the offender. Hence at the stage of framing of charge an individual accused may seek discharge if he or she can show that the materials are absolutely insufficient for framing of charge against that particular accused. But such exercise is required only at a later stage, as indicated above and not at the stage of taking cognizance and summoning the accused on the basis of prima facie case. Even at the stage of framing of charge, the sufficiency of materials for the purpose of conviction is not the requirement and a prayer for discharge can be allowed only if the court finds that the materials are wholly insufficient for the purpose of trial. It is also a settled proposition of law that even when there are materials raising strong suspicion against an accused, the court will be justified in rejecting a prayer for discharge and in granting an opportunity to the prosecution to bring on record the entire evidence in accordance with law so that case of both the sides may be considered
Discharge under Section 239 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 239, Crpc when accused shall be discharged. - (1) If, upon considering the police report and the documents sent with it under Section 173 and making such examination, if any, of the accused as the Magistrate thinks necessary and after giving the prosecution and the accused an opportunity of being heard, the Magistrate considers the charge against the accused to be groundless, he shall discharge the accused, and record his reasons for so doing.
The Court will have to consider the Police Report and the Charge sheet (F.I.R and Final Case Report) as submitted to it by the Police under Section 173.The Magistrate may examine the Accused if he deems fit.
Thereafter both the Prosecution and the Accused Parties versions would be heard
Charge against the accused to be groundless- There should not be in existence an iota of evidence against the accused. The Court also has to satisfy itself that there is no prima facie (on the face of it) case against the accused.
The following points must be raised in the Application:Depending upon the nature of the offence, it has to be asserted
That no material particulars of the offence have been specified in the F.I.R and Charge sheet i.e Vagueness in allegations in F.I.R and Charge sheet.
That the F.I.R and Charge sheet allegations have not been supported by evidence.
That the version of the Prosecution has not been supported by any of the witnesses for the Prosecution
Contradictions present in the versions of the Prosecution and Witnesses.
That the allegations in the charge sheet are new and different from complaint allegations and these new allegations were not communicated to the accused to defend by the accused by producing supporting evidence.
A question may crop up as to what exactly constitutes a prima-facie case. The Courts have reiterated that there must no be a single shred of evidence against the Accused. However the Courts have also held that in the event a suspicion arises against the Accused, still he would be discharged provided the suspicion is not a grave suspicion.
In the words of the Honble Kerala High Court The law does contemplate a situation, though it must be rare, where an indictment on the basis of a final report may be groundless.
In such circumstances, the court provides the safety valve provision in Section 239/240 C.r.P.C where under premature discharge can be claimed by such indictees.
A false accusation of rape is the intentional reporting of a rape where no rape has occurred. It is difficult to assess the prevalence of false accusations because they are often conflated with non-prosecuted cases under the designation "unfounded“
India gives exclusive rights to men, in case of wrongfully accused in a recent judgment by charging the lady with false accusation and given a life time imprisonment.
There are remedies and rights given to the accused to present himself before the Supreme and benefitted and set free if he is not otherwise found guilty.
This presentation is to know your rights under law, in case you are falsely accused, you always have a remedy.
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