The Provisions of False Testimony from the Perspective of Islamic Law

  • Muneer Ahmed Chief Editor

Abstract

Witnesses play an important role in providing justice to the aggrieved party.
However, there is always a possibility that the witnesses may be false.
Falsehood in testimony is a serious problem of the society and every legal
system attempts to prevent falsehood by providing certain provisions that aim
to curb falsehood. In this connection, the Pakistani courts have addressed this
issue in various cases whereby the courts passed harsh remarks about the
false witnesses and ordered for certain actions against them. This issue is also
discussed in Islamic law with extensive detail. We find that the Muslim jurists
have discussed different aspects of this problem. For instance, what is the way
of verifying the reliability of witnesses? What is the provision or punishment
for those who commit falsehood in testimony? Are they punished for this act?
Once falsehood is committed, is there any remedy for it, or it disqualifies from
giving testimony forever? What if a decision is taken on the basis of false
testimony?
In this article, we discuss this issue from both Islamic and conventional law
perspective and highlight the main points in the context of the current judicial
approach towards this issue.

Published
2020-02-01