Offences relating to Documents, Property- marks, Currency and Bank- notes

Offences relating to documents

There are five offences under this head they are:

1. Forgery
2. Making a false document
3. Forged document
4. Falsification of accounts
5. Other offences relating to documents

1. Forgery
 Section 463 defines forgery
 Section 465 deals with punishment for forgery
 Forgery means making a false document with criminal intention to cause damage to any
person.
 Ingredients of forgery:
i. Making a false document or part of it
ii. With the intent to –
a) Cause damage or injury to public or any person
b) Cause any person to part with the property or to enter into express or implied
contract
c) Support any claim or title
d) Commit fraud or that fraud may be committed
 Punishment- imprisonment up to two years or fine or both (Sec. 465).
 All forgeries are false documents but all false documents are not forgeries.
 In Re Riasal Ali case, (1881) 7 Cal 35, it was held that using another person’s seal or
signature amounts to forgery.

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2. Making a false document (Sec. 464)
There are three ways in which a false document can be made:
a) By making, sealing, signing or executing a document
b) By alteration of a document
c) By making a person to sign, who do not know the contents or the nature of
alteration done to a document.
 Two important explanations to Sec. 464 are:
1. A man’s signature of his own name may amount to forgery. But this must have been
done in order that it may be mistaken for the signature of another person of the same
name.
A picks up a bill of exchange payable to the order of a different person of the same
name. A endorses the bill in his own name, intending to cause it to be believed that it
was endorsed by the person to whose order it was payable. Here A has committed
forgery.
2. Making a false document in the name of a fictitious person may amount to forgery.
Offender should intend it to be believed to be made by a real person or by a deceased
person during his lifetime.
A draws a bill of exchange upon a fictitious person and fraudulently accepts the bill in
the name of such fictitious person with the intent to negotiate it. A commits forgery.
 Emp. v. Appasami, (1889) 12 Mad. 90- A falsely represented himself to be B at a
University Examination, got a hall ticket under B’s name, and signed answer papers to
questions with B’s name. it was held that A had committed the offence of forgery and
cheating by personation.

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3. Forged Document (Sec. 470)
 A false document made wholly or in part by forgery is designated a ‘forged document’
under Section 470.
 Using as genuine a document known to be forged is punishable under Section 471.
 Punishment: Imprisonment for two years, fine or both.

 Aggravated forms of forgery:

1. Forgery of a record in a Court of Justice, Register of birth, Baptism, Marriage or
Burial, or Certificate of an authority to institute or defend a suit, or A power of
attorney ( Sec.466).
2. Forgery of a valuable security or will (Sec. 467).
3. Forgery for the purpose of cheating (Sec. 468).
4. Forgery for the purpose of harming the reputation of any person (Sec. 469).

 Defences to a charge of forgery:

i. That he did not make the false document or part of it, or
ii. That the making of document was not with the dishonest intent.
iii. That the accused had the complainants authority to sign, etc., the complainants name.

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4. Falsification of accounts

 Section 477A provides for the offence of falsification of accounts by such persons like
clerk, officer or servant employed for that purpose.
 Punishment: Imprisonment up to 7 years or fine or both.
 Ingredients:
i. The person charged must be a clerk, an officer or a servant.
ii. He must willfully, and with intent to defraud-
a) Destroy, alter, mutilate or falsify any book, paper, writing or account which-
 Belongs to his employer, or
 Is received by him on behalf of his employer;
b) Make false entry or alter any particulars in such book, document, etc., or
account.
 In Keshavrao case, (1934) 34 Bom. L.R. 1102- X, a paid supervisor of a cooperative
society, debited an amount as the pay of a sweeper-woman of the society, took the thumb-
impression of his nephew against the debit entry, certified thumb-impression to be that of
the sweeper-woman, and appropriated the amount to himself.
It was held that the accused was guilty of three offences, (i) of criminal breach of trust as
servant as he misappropriated the amount; (ii) of forgery under Sec. 467 as he caused to
be affixed to the debt entry the thumb-impression of his nephew; and (iii) of falsification
of accounts under Sec. 477A as he made a false debit entry.
 Making of false entries in a book or register by any person in order to conceal a previous
fraudulent or dishonest act also falls under this section. A certain sum of money was
received by the accused for payment into the Government treasury but he did not enter
the sum in the register. After the commencement of an inquiry into the matter, he made
false entries in the register showing that those sums had been paid. It was held that he was
guilty under this section.

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 Offences relating to currency notes and bank notes (Ss. 489A to 489E)

The five offences relating to currency notes and bank notes are:

1. Counterfeiting currency notes or bank notes (Sec. 489A).

2. Selling, buying or using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes, knowing
the same to be forged or counterfeit (Sec. 489B).
3. Possession of forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes, knowing or
having reason to believe the same to be forged or counterfeit, and intending to use
the same as genuine (Sec. 489C).
4. Making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting
currency notes or bank notes. (Sec. 489D).
5. Making or using documents resembling currency notes or bank notes (Sec. 489E).

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