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20
NARADA.
again alter it. He must not recede from his previous claim. By doing so he will lose his suit.
57. He must not lodge a false plaint. He is a sinner who proffers a false charge (against any one). Whatever fine is declared in a suit of this sort has to be paid by the claimant.
58. If a man delays his answer under false pretences, or if he stands mute at the trial, or if he revokes his own former statements: these are the signs by which a loser of his cause may be known.
59. One who absconds after having received the summons, or who does not make any defence after having arrived in court, shall be punished by the king, because his cause is lost.
60. If a man being questioned does not uphold
having first claimed, as being his due, a sum amounting to 20 Gadyânakas of gold, he says afterwards: This man has to give 50 drammas (drachmas) to my son, it is called 'receding from one's first claim and proffering another claim.' A. Yâgnavalkya II, 9.
58. Delaying one's answer under false pretences is e. g. if a man says, 'I am unwell just now,' or 'I am unclean just now. I make no answer.' Likewise, if a man, after having been asked by the judges, does not speak, or if having made a statement previously he revokes it; by such signs as these a man may be known to have lost his cause. A.
59. He who, after having been summoned by the king, makes off; or who, having decamped and having been seized with difficulty by the king's officers, does not make any reply to the questions put to him, shall be fined by the king, because he loses his suit. A. Manu VIII, 55, 56; Yâgñavalkya II, 16.
60. If, being questioned by the judges, he does not uphold, i. e. maintain, a statement previously made by himself. A. The commentators of Manu, in commenting on an analogous passage of the Code of Manu (VIII, 54), give the following example. A man has made a certain statement regarding the money in dispute. The judge asks him afterwards, 'Why did you tender or accept the money at night?' The man thereupon does not abide by his own former statement. (See Jolly, translation of the eighth chapter of
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