Forgery and Fabricated Documents: Complaint and Defence

What counts as forgery under the BNS?

Forgery has two parts. The first is a false document or false electronic record, defined in section 335 BNS. A document is false if someone dishonestly or fraudulently makes, signs, seals or executes it, or affixes an electronic signature, intending people to believe it was made by or with the authority of a person who did not make or authorise it. It is also false if someone alters a genuine document after it was executed, without authority, in a material way. And it is false if someone gets a person to sign it knowing that person cannot understand it, because of unsoundness of mind, intoxication or deception.

The second part is intent. Under section 336(1), making a false document is forgery only if it is done with intent to cause damage or injury to the public or any person, to support a claim or title, to make a person part with property or enter a contract, or to commit fraud. A false document made as a joke or a sample, with no such intent, is not forgery.

Electronic records are covered in the same way. A fake email from a company's domain, a doctored PDF of a bank statement, an altered WhatsApp screenshot submitted as evidence, or a document signed with someone else's digital signature can all be false electronic records. The IT Act offences for identity theft and impersonation (sections 66C and 66D) often run alongside.

Forgery offences under the BNS and their IPC equivalents

The forgery chapter kept the IPC structure, with new numbers. Cases registered before 1 July 2024 still use the old sections; see our post on which law applies to your FIR.

A sale deed, a cheque, a promissory note, a receipt and a power of attorney are all valuable securities, which is why property and money forgeries are usually registered under section 338 along with sections 336(3), 340(2) and 318 (cheating). Basic forgery under section 336(2) is a lesser, bailable offence.

Forgery, fabricating evidence or cheating: which is it?

These overlap but are not the same. Forgery is about the genuineness of a document: who made it. Cheating, under section 318 BNS, is about deceiving a person into handing over property or doing something they would not otherwise do. Many cases involve both: a forged sale deed is used to cheat a buyer. But a cheating case does not need a forged document, and a forgery case does not need anyone to have actually been cheated.

Fabricating false evidence, under sections 228 and 229 BNS (old sections 192 and 193 IPC), is about creating a false document or entry so that it will be used in a judicial proceeding and mislead the court. It covers back-dated receipts filed in a suit, fake medical certificates filed for an adjournment, and invented rent receipts in an eviction case. When fabrication happens in a court case, the court itself is the complainant, which leads to the special rule below.

Getting this classification right matters for the complainant, because a complaint that alleges the wrong offence may be dismissed, and for the accused, because the defence is very different depending on which offence is actually made out.

When is a document not 'false' even if the contents are untrue?

This is the point that decides more forgery cases than any handwriting report. A document is false only if it purports to be made by someone who did not make it, or was altered without authority, or was signed by deception or incapacity. A document that a person signs in his own name, as himself, is not a false document just because what it says is untrue.

The Supreme Court made this clear in Mohammed Ibrahim v State of Bihar (2009). The accused had executed sale deeds for land that did not belong to them. The Court held that executing a deed in your own name, claiming to be the owner, does not amount to making a false document, because you are not pretending to be someone else. It may be cheating if a buyer was deceived, and it gives the real owner a civil remedy, but it is not forgery.

So a person who sells your property by signing his own name on the deed, falsely claiming title, has not forged anything; a person who signs your name on a deed has. A partner who records false figures in a firm's books, signing them himself, may commit falsification of accounts under section 344, but the document itself is not forged. Read the complaint against this test first: it often removes the forgery charge altogether.

Where to file a forgery complaint

Start with the police station where the forged document was made, used or where you suffered the loss. Forgery for cheating and use of a forged document as genuine are cognizable, so the police must register an FIR under section 173 BNSS if the complaint discloses these offences. For some forgery offences the police may hold a preliminary enquiry of up to 14 days under section 173(3) before deciding. You can also file an e-FIR where available, or a complaint at any police station as a zero FIR.

In Delhi, large financial forgeries, especially those involving many victims or banks, are often handled by the Economic Offences Wing; our post on filing and facing an EOW complaint in Delhi explains how that works. Forged electronic records and fake online documents go to the district cyber police station. Forged land records in UP often lead to complaints at the local police station and the tehsil at the same time.

If the police refuse to register an FIR, write to the DCP or SP, and then apply to the magistrate under section 175(3) BNSS for a direction to investigate, after showing that you approached the police first. Or file a private complaint under section 223 BNSS and lead evidence yourself. Our post on police refusing to register an FIR covers these steps.

What if the forged document was filed in a court case?

Then a special rule applies. Section 215(1)(b) BNSS (old section 195(1)(b)) bars a court from taking cognizance of forgery and related offences committed in respect of a document produced or given in evidence in a court proceeding, except on a written complaint by that court. The idea is that the court whose process was misused should decide whether prosecution is needed, and private parties should not use criminal cases to settle scores in pending litigation.

The bar is narrower than it looks. In Iqbal Singh Marwah v Meenakshi Marwah (2005), the Supreme Court held that it applies only where the forgery was committed while the document was in the custody of the court, after it was filed. If the document was forged first and then filed in court, as with a forged will produced in a probate case, the victim can file an FIR or a private complaint in the ordinary way. Most forgeries are committed before the document reaches court, so the bar applies less often than parties assume.

Where the bar does apply, or where fabricated evidence has been filed in your case, apply to the same court under section 379 BNSS (old section 340). The court can hold a preliminary inquiry, decide whether it is expedient in the interests of justice to prosecute, and file a complaint before the magistrate. Courts use this power sparingly, and only where the falsity is deliberate and material, not where a party has simply taken a wrong position.

How to file a forgery complaint the police will act on

Forgery complaints often stall because they read like a civil grievance. These steps make the criminal element visible.

1. Get a certified copy of the forged document

   From the sub-registrar, the bank, the court record or the authority where it was used. Police and courts work with certified copies; a photocopy from the other side is not enough.

2. Collect your admitted signatures from the same period

   Bank signature cards, passport, PAN application, registered documents, cheques, letters. Signatures change over time, so admitted signatures close to the date of the disputed one carry the most weight.

3. Obtain a private handwriting examination if you can

   A report from a qualified questioned document examiner, comparing the disputed signature with admitted ones, does not bind the police, but it shows the complaint is serious and points them to the forensic route.

4. Write the complaint around the elements

   State who made the document, when, how you know it is false, how it was used, and the loss or harm caused. Name the sections, but let the facts carry the weight. Attach the documents with an index.

5. File and follow up in writing

   Get a receipt or FIR number. If nothing happens within two weeks, write to the SHO and DCP, then approach the magistrate. Keep a copy of every letter, because the magistrate will ask what you did before coming to court.

How is forgery proved in court?

Mostly through handwriting and document evidence. Under section 39 BSA (old section 45 of the Evidence Act), the court can rely on the opinion of a person specially skilled in handwriting, a questioned document examiner. In police cases the documents go to the state forensic science laboratory (in Delhi, the FSL at Rohini), the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, or a Government Examiner of Questioned Documents. Under section 72 BSA (old section 73), the judge can also compare the disputed signature with admitted ones directly.

The opinion is only as good as the material sent. Examiners need several admitted signatures from around the same time, in the same kind of writing (a full signature, not initials), and preferably the original disputed document rather than a photocopy, because pen pressure, ink and line quality cannot be judged from a copy. Section 349 BNSS now allows a magistrate to order any person, including an accused, to give specimen signatures or handwriting for an investigation, which closed a gap the old law had.

When Advocate B.K. Singh is shown a disputed signature, the first thing he asks for is the admitted signatures from the same two or three years, because a comparison against a twenty-year-old passport signature is easy to attack. Courts treat handwriting opinion as weak evidence on its own and look for corroboration: who had the opportunity, who benefited, whether the person was even in the city on the date, whether the stamp paper was bought before or after the claimed date.

For electronic records, the questions shift to metadata, server logs, IP addresses and device extraction, and the record must come with a certificate under section 63 BSA. Our post on electronic evidence and the section 63 certificate explains what that certificate must contain.

Civil remedies against a forged deed

A criminal case punishes the forger; it does not cancel the document. If a forged sale deed, gift deed or power of attorney has been registered, you need a civil suit for cancellation under section 31 of the Specific Relief Act 1963, usually with a declaration of your title under section 34 and an injunction against any further transfer. When the court cancels a registered document, it sends a copy of the decree to the sub-registrar, who notes the cancellation in the register. The sub-registrar has no power to cancel a registered deed on his own.

The limitation for cancellation is three years from when the facts entitling you to have it cancelled first became known to you (Article 59 of the Limitation Act). That is why the date you learnt of the forgery should be recorded clearly in the plaint and in the police complaint. Where the forged deed has been used to take possession, a suit for possession may also be needed. Our page on civil law practice explains how these suits run in Delhi and UP courts.

A forged cheque or forged instruction to your bank is different. The bank's liability for paying on a forged signature is a matter of the banker and customer relationship, and the RBI's rules on unauthorised transactions and the banking ombudsman may give a faster remedy than a suit.

Accused of forgery: what to do first

Find out exactly what is alleged, and under which sections. A complaint at the police station, an FIR, a court complaint under section 379 and a private complaint before a magistrate each call for a different response. Get the FIR copy or complaint, and the document said to be forged, before you say anything to the IO.

Most forgery offences carry seven years or less, so the guidance in Arnesh Kumar v State of Bihar (2014) applies: the police should not arrest as a matter of routine and should first consider a notice of appearance under section 35 BNSS. Where section 338 is added, because the document is a deed, will or valuable security, the offence carries life imprisonment and arrest becomes more likely, so anticipatory bail should be considered early. Our post on anticipatory bail in Delhi covers that application.

Do not hand over original documents without a seizure memo, and do not give specimen signatures informally. If the police want specimens, they can be given before the magistrate under section 349 BNSS, with a record of what was taken. And do not contact the complainant to explain or settle without advice; such conversations often end up as evidence of pressure.

Defences that work in forgery cases

• No false document. If you signed in your own name, as yourself, the document is not false in law even if its contents are disputed, following Mohammed Ibrahim (2009).
• Authority to sign. A signature made with the person's authority, such as under a power of attorney, as an authorised signatory, or with oral permission in a family business, is not forgery. Emails, past practice and the person's own conduct can prove authority.
• No dishonest or fraudulent intent. A clerical correction, a filled-in date on a signed blank form at the signer's request, or an alteration that benefits no one does not meet section 336(1).
• Weak handwriting evidence. Reports based on photocopies, too few admitted signatures, signatures from distant years, or examiners who did not explain their reasoning can be challenged in cross-examination or by a defence examiner.
• No knowledge of forgery. Using a forged document is an offence under section 340(2) only if you knew or had reason to believe it was forged. A buyer who received a forged deed from a seller is often a victim, not an accused.
• Delay and motive. A forgery complaint filed years after the document was known, during a property or family dispute, is examined closely by courts for motive. Delay is not a complete defence, but it shapes how the evidence is read.

When a forgery case is really a civil dispute

Many forgery FIRs come out of property, partnership and family disputes in which one side claims the other's document is forged to gain the upper hand in a civil suit. The High Court can quash such an FIR under section 528 BNSS where, on the complaint's own allegations, no offence is made out, or where the criminal case is plainly being used to pressure the other side in a civil matter. Courts look at whether a civil suit on the same document is already pending, how long the complainant knew about the document, and whether the allegation meets the definition of a false document at all.

Forgery offences are not compoundable under section 359 BNSS, so the parties cannot simply settle in the trial court. Where they do settle, especially in family and business disputes, the High Court can quash the case on the basis of the compromise if the dispute is essentially private and no public interest is involved. Forgery of public records or government documents is treated more strictly. Our post on quashing an FIR after a compromise explains the approach.

Documents to collect

Mistakes on both sides

Complainants most often file a forgery complaint when the real grievance is a breach of contract or a sale by someone without title. The case then fails on the definition, and the complainant loses time he could have spent on the civil suit. The second complainant mistake is relying only on the criminal case and letting the three-year limitation for cancellation run out.

Accused persons most often treat the case as a misunderstanding and give long statements to the police without seeing the document. Others create papers after the event, a back-dated authority letter or a fresh receipt, which turns a defensible case into a real one. Both sides sometimes hand over originals without a receipt and later cannot prove what was given.

The last mistake is ignoring the parallel civil case. Findings in a civil suit on the genuineness of a document are not binding on the criminal court, but they are persuasive, and a lost injunction application often changes the tone of the criminal case.

What to do this week

• Get a certified copy of the document in question and note the date you first learnt of it.
• Read the document against the definition: did someone sign as another person, alter it, or obtain a signature by deception?
• Collect admitted signatures from the same period.
• If you are the victim, file the police complaint with documents and consider a civil suit for cancellation.
• If the document was filed in a court case, check whether the forgery happened before or after filing.
• If you are accused, get the FIR or complaint, assess the sections and decide on anticipatory bail.
• Do not hand over originals without a seizure memo, and do not create fresh papers.

Getting the document looked at

Forgery cases are won or lost on the document and the papers around it, often before any witness is examined. If you want an advocate to look at a disputed deed, signature or complaint and tell you whether it is forgery in law and what to do first, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at B.K. Singh & Associates can review it. Send the papers through our online enquiry page. Our page on criminal cases in Delhi explains the police stations and courts involved.