Forgery and False Documents
Chapter Fifty-Six
Syllabus topic 1, "Offences under Indian Penal Code"
Pages 270 to 274 of 802
In one line
Forgery is making a document that lies about who made it, and the offence is complete before anybody is deceived.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: by section 336(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 whoever makes any false document or false electronic record, or part of one, with intent to cause damage or injury to the public or to any person, or to support any claim or title, or to cause any person to part with property, or to enter into any express or implied contract, or with intent to commit fraud or that fraud may be committed, commits forgery.
The two sections that must be read together
Section 335 says what a false document is. Section 336 says that making one, with any of the listed intents, is forgery. Neither works alone.
The lie must be about authorship or authority, not about content. A document that states something untrue is not a false document. A document that purports to have been made by someone who did not make it, or by an authority that did not authorise it, is.
That is the point students most often miss. A man who writes a false certificate about his own qualifications in his own name has told a lie; he has not made a false document. A man who writes the same certificate in the name of a university has.
Section 335, the three limbs
Limb (A), false making. Dishonestly or fraudulently making, signing, sealing or executing a document or part of one; making or transmitting an electronic record or part of one; affixing an electronic signature; or making any mark denoting execution or the authenticity of an electronic signature, with the intention of causing it to be believed that it was made, signed, sealed, executed, transmitted or affixed by or by the authority of a person by whom or by whose authority he knows it was not.
Limb (B), material alteration. Without lawful authority, dishonestly or fraudulently, by cancellation or otherwise, altering a document or electronic record in any material part after it has been made, executed or signed, whether by himself or another, and whether that person is living or dead.
Limb (C), obtaining a signature from a person who cannot understand. Dishonestly or fraudulently causing a person to sign, seal, execute or alter a document or electronic record, or affix an electronic signature, knowing that by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication he cannot know, or that by reason of deception practised on him he does not know, the contents or the nature of the alteration.
Two illustrations settle recurring questions. An agent authorised to fill in a cheque for a sum not exceeding ten thousand rupees who fraudulently inserts twenty thousand commits forgery, which is limb (B) at work. And a man who draws a bill of exchange on himself in another's name without authority, intending to discount it as genuine, is guilty of forgery even though he means to meet the bill at maturity.
Forgery and False Documents
The graded offences
Section 336(2). Forgery: two years, or fine, or both.
Section 336(3). Forgery intending the document or electronic record to be used for the purpose of cheating: seven years and fine.
Section 337. Forgery of a document or electronic record purporting to be a record or proceeding of a Court, an identity document issued by Government including a voter identity card or Aadhaar card, a register of birth, marriage or burial, a register kept by a public servant, a certificate or document purporting to be made by a public servant in his official capacity, an authority to institute or defend a suit or to confess judgment, or a power of attorney: seven years and fine.
Section 338. Forgery of a document purporting to be a valuable security or a will, or an authority to adopt a son, or an authority to make or transfer a valuable security or to receive principal, interest or dividends, or to receive or deliver money, movable property or a valuable security, or an acquittance or receipt: imprisonment for life, or up to ten years, and fine.
Section 339. Possessing a document described in section 337 or 338, knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine.
Section 340. Sub-section (1) designates a false document or electronic record made wholly or partly by forgery a forged document. Sub-section (2): whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document or electronic record which he knows or has reason to believe to be forged shall be punished in the same manner as if he had forged it.
Sections 341 and 342. Making or possessing a counterfeit seal, plate or other instrument with intent to commit forgery punishable under section 338; and counterfeiting a device or mark used for authenticating such documents, or possessing counterfeit marked material.
Section 343. Fraudulently or dishonestly, or with intent to cause damage or injury, cancelling, destroying, defacing or secreting, or attempting to, a will, an authority to adopt a son or any valuable security, or committing mischief in respect of such a document: imprisonment for life, or up to seven years, and fine.
Section 344, falsification of accounts. A clerk, officer or servant, or a person employed or acting as one, who wilfully and with intent to defraud destroys, alters, mutilates or falsifies any book, electronic record, paper, writing, valuable security or account belonging to or in the possession of his employer or received for him, or wilfully and with intent to defraud makes or abets a false entry, or omits or alters or abets the omission or alteration of any material particular: seven years, or fine, or both.
Forgery and False Documents
Sections 345 and 346. Section 345 defines a property mark. Section 346 punishes tampering with a property mark with intent to cause injury.
Distinctions that carry marks
| A false statement | A false document | |
|---|---|---|
| The lie | About the facts stated | About who made or authorised the document |
| Forgery | No | Yes, if made with one of the intents in section 336(1) |
| Section 336(2) | Section 336(3) | |
|---|---|---|
| Intent | Any of those in sub-section (1) | That the forged document be used for the purpose of cheating |
| Maximum | Two years, or fine, or both | Seven years and fine |
| Section 337 | Section 338 | |
|---|---|---|
| The document | Court records, Government identity documents including voter identity and Aadhaar, registers, public servants' certificates, powers of attorney | Valuable security, will, authority to adopt, authority to deal with a valuable security, acquittance or receipt |
| Maximum | Seven years and fine | Life, or ten years, and fine |
A worked example
Deepa wants a loan. She types a salary certificate on paper carrying the letterhead of a company she has never worked for, signs it in the name of that company's manager, and gives it to a bank.
Is it a false document? Yes, under limb (A) of section 335. She made and signed a document intending it to be believed that it was made and signed by a person by whose authority she knew it was not.
Is it forgery? Yes, under section 336(1): she made it with intent to cause a person to part with property.
Which punishment? Section 336(3), seven years and fine, because she intended the document to be used for the purpose of cheating.
The bank manager who knew and passed it on. Section 340(2) applies: a person who fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine a document he knows or has reason to believe to be forged is punished as if he had forged it himself.
Change the document. Suppose Deepa instead forges a promissory note. That is section 338, forgery of a valuable security, and the maximum rises to imprisonment for life.
Change it again. Suppose she forges an Aadhaar card. Section 337 names an identity document issued by Government including a voter identity card or Aadhaar card, and the maximum is seven years.
A different case. Suppose Deepa is a clerk who, to hide a shortfall, alters entries in her employer's cash book. Section 344 applies: a clerk who wilfully and with intent to defraud alters or falsifies a book or account belonging to her employer, seven years, or fine, or both. Because the record is kept electronically, the section's reference to an electronic record covers it.
Forgery and False Documents
And a harder one. Suppose Deepa's uncle, angry at being left out, burns the only copy of a will after the testator's death. Section 343 applies: fraudulently or dishonestly, or with intent to cause damage or injury, destroying a document which is or purports to be a will, punishable with imprisonment for life or up to seven years and fine.
What beginners get wrong
Thinking a lying document is a forgery. The lie must be about authorship or authority. A false statement in a document made by its true author is not forgery.
Thinking somebody must be deceived. The offence is complete on the making with the required intent.
Thinking a person cannot forge his own signature. Limb (B) covers altering a document materially after execution, including one he executed himself, so a man who alters his own executed deed without lawful authority forges it.
Missing section 340(2). Using a forged document as genuine is punished as if the user had forged it, so the punishment tracks the type of document.
Limits and criticism
Two years for simple forgery is very low, and almost every real case is charged under section 336(3), 337 or 338 instead, which suggests the basic offence is doing little work.
Imprisonment for life for forging a receipt sits oddly beside seven years for forging a court record, and the grading has not been revisited since 1860.
Limb (A) is drafted around signing and sealing. Electronic records and electronic signatures were added, but the underlying model is a paper document with a manuscript signature, and the harder modern questions, about tampering with metadata or with an authentication token, are answered by analogy.
Section 344 uses "clerk, officer or servant" for a range of modern employment that includes contractors and outsourced staff, and whether such a person is a servant for the section is left to the general law.
Quick revision
Section 335, three limbs. (A) making, signing, sealing, executing, transmitting or affixing so as to be believed made by another or by another's authority; (B) materially altering after execution without lawful authority; (C) obtaining a signature or alteration from a person who cannot know the contents through unsoundness of mind, intoxication or deception.
Section 336(1). Making a false document or electronic record with intent to cause damage or injury, to support a claim or title, to cause a person to part with property or enter a contract, or to commit fraud.
Section 336(2) and (3). Two years; seven years and fine where intended for cheating.
Section 337. Court records, Government identity documents including voter identity and Aadhaar, registers, public servants' certificates, powers of attorney: seven years and fine.
Forgery and False Documents
Section 338. Valuable security, will, authority to adopt, acquittance or receipt: life, or ten years, and fine.
Section 340(2). Using a forged document as genuine is punished as if the user had forged it.
Section 343. Cancelling, destroying, defacing or secreting a will, authority to adopt or valuable security: life, or seven years, and fine.
Section 344. Falsification of accounts by a clerk, officer or servant: seven years, or fine, or both.
Test yourself
1. What makes a document false? That it purports to have been made, signed, sealed, executed, transmitted or affixed by, or by the authority of, a person by whom or by whose authority the maker knows it was not; or that it has been materially altered after execution without lawful authority; or that a signature or alteration was obtained from a person who could not know its contents or nature.
2. Is a document containing a false statement a forgery? Not by itself. The falsity must be about authorship or authority, not about the truth of what the document says.
3. Which forgeries carry imprisonment for life? Those under section 338: a valuable security, a will, an authority to adopt a son, an authority to make or transfer a valuable security or to receive money or property, and an acquittance or receipt.
4. How is a person who uses a forged document punished? Under section 340(2), in the same manner as if he had forged it himself, provided he used it fraudulently or dishonestly as genuine knowing or having reason to believe it forged.
5. An agent authorised to fill in a cheque for up to ten thousand rupees inserts twenty thousand. What offence? Forgery. The section's own illustration says so, and it falls within limb (B) of section 335, a material alteration made without lawful authority after the document was signed.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.