JUDGMENT S. Malik, J. - This is an application under section 561-A of the Cr.P.C. praying that the case pending against the applicants it, the court of the judicial Magistrate' Bulandshahr, under section 198 of the I.P.C. quashed. 2. Heard. The facts apparent from the material on the record which have' not been controverted by any counter. affidavit, are that the opposite party filed a suit for specific performance of a eon. tract. In that suit the applicants filed two written statements controverting the allegations made in the plaint. The complaint in question has been filed alleging that the two written statements are false and as, according to the complainant, they are certificates within the meaning of S. 197 of the I.P.C., the applicants committed an offence punishable under section 198 of the I.P.C 3. If the allegations made in the complaint are accepted, it would mean that in every civil suit in which the Court finds allegations in a written statement to be incorrect, it would make the defendants liable to be prosecuted for an of- fence punishable under section 198 of the I.P.C. My attention was drawn to the observations made by the Calcutta High Court in Mahabir Thakur v. Emperor, AIR 1917 Calcutta 466. A written statement filed in a civil suit is merely a reply to the allegations made in a plaint. It cannot be said that it is a certificate required by law to be given or signed or relating to any fact of which such certificate is by law admissible in evidence within the meaning of S. 197 of the I.P.C. The facts alleged in a written statement have to be proved by evidence. 4. Under the circumstances, I allow this application and quash the proceedings pending against the applicants as prayed.