The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Himachal Pradesh lower court to initiate proceedings against a girl for filing a false affidavit to save her father, who had been convicted for raping her.

The bench of Justices H K  Sema and P P Naolekar said the affidavit filed by the girl did not sound to be plausible and seemed to have been filed to save her father, Asha Ram.

In the second affidavit, the girl said she had filed the complaint against her father under the pressure from her mother, who had been living separately for years.

The apex court also dismissed Ram’s review petition challenging his conviction, by the court in 2005 sentencing him to a life term.

The bench asked the Shimla court to prosecute the girl under section 191, 192 and 193 of the Indian Penal Code for making false statements before the apex court in her affidavit. The bench observed that either of the girl’s two statements - the one in which she deposed before the trial court accusing her father of raping her or the other in which absolve her father of rape charges - was false. The bench said it was not inclined to believe the girl’s affidavit and set aside the November 17, 2005 ruling of the apex court, which convicted the father and enhanced his five-year-jail term to life term on the basis of girl’s deposition.

The case dates back to 1988 when the girl, then minor, was raped by Ram.