Oath Legally Defines

Oath legally defines

 By

S J Tubrazy

An oath is a form of attestation by which a parson signifies that he is bound in conscience to perform an act faithfully and truthfully.

 Oath is an affirmation of truth of a statement, which renders one willfully asserting untrue statement punishable for perjury. An outward pledge by the person taking it that his attestation or promise is made under an immediate sense of responsibility of God. A solemn appeal to the supreme being in attestation of the truth of some statement. An external pledge or asseveration, made in verification of statements made, or to be made, coupled with an appeal to a sacred or venerated object, in evidence of the serious and reverent state of mind of the party, or with an invocation to a supreme being to witness the words of the party, and to visit him with punishment if they be false. In its broadest sense, the term is used to include all forms of attestation by which a party signifies that he is bound in conscience to perform the act faithfully and truly. In a more restricted sense, it excludes all those forms of attestation or promise which are not accompanied by an imprecation. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edn. Ref).

An oath was used from early times for securing the fulfillment of any special contract or undertaking by introducing the fear of Divine Wrath, on failure to perform the obligation which the taker of the oath entered into. This use of the oath so as to bind the conscience seems to have been adopted by the Medes and Persians, the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, by the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus and the Muslims. Oath is, thus, a method of reminding a witness strongly of the Divine punishment somewhere in store for false swearing and, thus, of putting him a frame of mind calculated to speak only the truth as he saw it.