CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

The Final draft for the fulfilment of project of CRIMINAL LAW I

On
“FORGERY AS A WHITE COLLAR CRIME”

Submitted to:- Father Peter Ladis

Faculty of Criminal law I
Submitted by: - Harshit Gupta
Roll no.1623
2st Year B.B.A.L.L.B (Hons)

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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................2

DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................4

Aims & Objectives......................................................................................................................4

Hypothesis...................................................................................................................................4

Research Methodology...............................................................................................................4

(1) FORGERY IN INDIA..........................................................................................................5

(A) Forgery Under IPC...............................................................................................................5

ingredients........................................................................................................................................5

(B) Punishment for forgery.........................................................................................................9

(C) Types of forgery.................................................................................................................10

(2) FORGERY IN OTHER COUNTRIES...............................................................................12

UNITED KINGDOM....................................................................................................................12

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...............................................................................................13

(3) MODERN CONTEXT OF FORGERY..............................................................................14

CONCLUSION, CRITICISM AND SUGGESTIONS.................................................................17

BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................19

BOOKS..........................................................................................................................................19

ARTICLES....................................................................................................................................19

WEBSITE......................................................................................................................................19

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Writing a project is one of the most difficult academic challenges I have ever faced. Though this
project has been presented by me but there are many people who remained in veil, who gave
their support and helped me to complete this project.

First of all I am very grateful to my subject teacher Mr Father Peter Ladis without the kind
support of whom and help the completion of the project would have been a herculean task for
me. He took out time from his busy schedule to help me to complete this project and suggested
me from where and how to collect data.

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work reported in the BA LL.B (Hons.) Project Report entitled “Forgery
as a White Collar Crime” submitted at Chanakya National Law University, Patna is an
authentic record of my work carried out under the supervision of Mr. Father Peter Ladis. I
have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or diploma. I am fully responsible
for the contents of my Project Report.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Aims & Objectives

The researcher will do this research to understand the offence of Forgery and influence of law in
curbing the crime of forgery.

Hypothesis
1. Crime of forgery cannot be committed without committing fraud.
2. There are no sufficient means present to detect modern day forgeries which are done using
advanced technologies.

Research Methodology
The researcher will emphasize and use the doctrinal method for this project topic.
The researcher will be collecting valuable data from library which includes the written works and
from the field. All these data will help the researcher to solve his research problem. All the
books, journals, articles published in newspapers, bodies, reports. The researcher will make use
of doctrinal. The doctrinal process includes the use of literary source.

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 (1) FORGERY IN INDIA

Forgery is a Criminal offence in India and is mentioned in Section 463 in chapter XVIII [Of
Offences relating to documents and to Property Marks] of Indian Penal Code.

(A) FORGERY UNDER IPC

Forgery under IPC means “Whoever makes any false documents or false electronic record or part
of a document or electronic record, 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.”1

INGREDIENTS

(1) MAKING OF FALSE DOCUMENTS

Making of false document constitutes forgery. What amounts to making of false

document is mentioned in section 464 of IPC.2
The making of a false document is a sine qua non for committing the offense of forgery.3
Section 464 talks about a person with malafied intent,
(i) making or executing a document causing to be believed that it was made or
executed by some other person or by authority of some other person or,
(ii) altering any material part of the document without lawful authority
(iii) causes any person to sign, execute or alter any document form a person who could
not by reason of unsound of mind, intoxication or deception know the contents of
the document.

The person who makes a false document or false electronic record commits forgery. It is
essential that the false document or the false electronic record, when made, must either
1
Indian Penal Code, Section 463.
2
Indian Penal Code, Section 464
3
Ratanlal and Dhirajlal, The Indian Penal Code, Thirty Fourth Edition, 2014. Page 1117

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 appear on its face to be, or be in fact one, which, if true, would possess some legal
validity. In other words the document or the electronic record must be capable of
effecting the fraud intended.4

In the case of Mir Nagvi Askari v. C.B.I, the court held “a person is said to make a false
document or record if he satisfies one of the three conditions as noticed hereinabove and
provided for under the section 464 of IPC.”5

The term ‘document’ is defined in Section 29, IPC to denote “any matter expressed or
described upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks or by more than one
of those means, intended to be used, or which may be used as evidence of that matter.”

The term ‘electronic record’, according to clause (f) of sub-section (1) of Section 2 of the
Information Technology Act, 2000, means ‘data, record or data generated, image or
sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or microfilm or computer generated
microfiche’.

Merely changing a document would not amount to forgery. The alteration of document
under ‘secondly’ clause of Section 464 need to be done for some gain or with such
objective on the part of the accused.6
It is not necessary that the document should be published or made in the name of an
existing person.7

(2) TO CAUSE DAMAGE OR INJURY TO THE PUBLIC OR TO ANY PERSON

There must be intention to cause some damage or injury to public or and individual.
4
Bandan Singh, (1922) 3 Lah 373
5
AIR 2010 SC 528
6
Parmindar Kaurl v. State of U.P, (2010) 1 SCC 322;
7
Explanation 2 of section 464 of The Indian Penal Code.

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 For e.g. If A alters a clause of the deed without intention to causes any damage to any
person then it will not be considered forgery.
Thus intention is key of the offence. The word fraudulently and dishonestly shows that
intention is required and these are defined in Section 25 & 24 of Indian Penal Code
respectively. It is immaterial whether damage, injury or fraud is actually caused or not.8
So injury or intent to cause injury needs to be proved.

(3) SUPPORT ANY CLAIM OR TITLE

The illustrations (f), (g), (h) and (i) make it clear that even if a man has a legal claim or
title to property, he will be liable for the offence of forgery if he counterfeits documents
in order to support it.
An actual intention to convert an illegal or doubtful claim into an apparently legal claim
is dishonest and will constitute the offence of forgery.9
The word claim does not only mean claim on property it can be claim on anything like
custody of child or admission in a university.

(4) TO CAUSE ANY PERSON TO PART WITH PROPERTY

This means that to make any person remove from possession of any property or givr it up
or sell or anything to make him part from that. It is not necessary that the property exist at
the time when a person is made to be part with the property.10

(5) INTENT TO COMMIT FRUAD

The word “defraud” includes an element of deceit. Deceit is not an ingredient of the
definition of the word “dishonestly” while it is an important ingredient of the definition
of the word “fraudulently”. The former involves a pecuniary or economic gain or loss
while the latter by construction excludes that element. Further) the juxtaposition of the

8
Kalyanmal, (1937) Nag 45
9
Maheshchandra Prasad, (1943) 22 Pat. 292
10
Sashi bhushan, (1893) 15 All 210

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 two expressions “‘dishonestly” and “fraudulently” used in the various sections of the
Code indicates their close affinity and therefore the definition of one may give colour to
the other. To illustrate, in the definition of “dishonestly”, wrongful gain or wrongful loss
is the necessary enough. So too, if the expresssion “fraudulently’ were to be held to
involve the element of injury to the person or persons deceived, it would be reasonable to
assume that the injury should be something other than pecuniary or economic loss.
Though almost always an advantage to one causes loss to another and vice versa, it need
not necessarily be so.11 Should we hold that the concept of fraud” would include not only
deceit but also some injury to the person deceived, it would be appropriate to hold by
analogy drawn from the definition of “dishonestly” that to satisfy the definition of
“‘fraudulently” it would be enough if there was a non- economic advantage to the
deceiver or a non-economic loss to the deceived. Both need not co-exist.
The expression ‘fraud’ involves two elements, deceit and injury to the person deceived.
Injury is something other than economic loss, that is, deprivation of property, whether
movable or immovable or of money and it will include and any harm whatever caused to
any person in body, mind, reputation or such others. In short, it is a non- economic or
non-pecuniary loss. A benefit or advantage to the deceiver, will almost always cause loss
or detriment to the deceived. Even in those rare cases where there is a benefit or
advantage to the deceiver, but no corresponding loss to the deceived, the second
condition is satisfied.12

(B) PUNISHMENT FOR FORGERY

Section 465 prescibes punishment for forgery as maximum of 2 yers imprisonment or fine or
both. The ingriedients of section 463 needs to be fulfilled for committing any person under

11
The indian penal code by S.N. Misra, Central Law publications, 20th edtion
12
(1963) 2 Cr.LJ 434

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section 465. Forgery or fraud are essentially matters of evidence which could be proved as a fact
by direct evidence or inferences by proved facts.13

(C) TYPES OF FORGERY

Forgery can be divided into different types based on the purpose it is made for or the type of
document that is being forged.
13
Indian Bank v. Satyam Fibres pvt. Ltd., AIR 1996 SC 2592

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  Section 466 of IPC defines a forgery of record of court or of public register.
Forgery of record of court or of public register etc. has been made punishable under this
section. The section states that whoever forges either a document purporting to be a
record or proceeding of or in a court of justice, or a register of birth, baptism, marriage or
burial, or a register kept by a public servant in his official capacity, or an authority to
institute or defend a suit, or to take any proceedings therein, or to confess judgment, or a
power of attorney, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term
extending up to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. This is an aggravated form of
forgery for which the punishment has been enhanced.14
A new explanation has been inserted by the Information Technology Act, 2000 in this
section which states that for the purposes of this section the word “register” includes any
list, data or record of any entries maintained in the “electronic form” as defined by
section 2(1)(r) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 according to which the
expression “electronic form” with reference to information means any information
generated, sent, received or stored in media, magnetic, optical, computer memory, micro
film, computer generated micro fiche or similar device.

 Section 467 of IPC mentions the forgery of valuable security, will etc.
Forgery of valuable security, will, etc. has been punished under this section. The section
states that whoever forges a document which purports to be either a valuable security or a
will, or an authority to adopt a son, or which purports to give authority to any person
either to make or transfer any valuable security, or to receive the principal, interest, or
dividends thereon, or to receive or deliver any money, movable property, or valuable
security, or any document purporting to be an acquittance or receipt acknowledging the
payment of money, or an acquittance or receipt for the delivery of any movable property
or valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with simple or
rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to ten years, and shall also be liable to
fine.

14
The Indian penal code by S.N. Misra, Central Law publications, 20th edtion

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 The offence under this section is aggravated form of forgery. It is a very serious offence
as the punishment prescribed shows. Where a person who is not to sign a document signs
it for the purpose of making it a valid document he is guilty of signing a false document.
As such copying the signature of an agent on a blank draft form of that bank by a co-
conspirator was held to be an offence under this section. Getting registered a sale deed by
impersonating the real owner is punishable under this section.
An unregistered document, until registered is not a valuable security, nevertheless it will
be regarded a valuable security within the meaning of this section.15

 Section 468 of IPC gives forgery for the purpose of cheating.

Cheating is defined under section 415of IPC and it is crime of deceiving a person and
then inducing such person to deliver any peroperty.
This section punishes forgery for the purpose of cheating. It says that whoever commits
forgery with the intention that the document or electronic record forged shall be used for
the purpose of cheating, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a
term extending up to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
The section requires that forgery must be committed and the intention of the offender
must be to use the forged document or forged electronic record for the purpose of
cheating. Whether the intention materializes or not is of no consequence. This offence is
also an aggravated form of forgery for which enhanced punishment has been prescribed.
For this section it is not necessary that the accused must really cheat, only intention to
cheat will fulfill the elements of offence.16

 Section 469 of IPC mention forgery for the purpose of harming reputation.
A person convicted under section 469 will also be convicted under section 500 of the
code.17

15
Kasha Nath naik, (1897) 25 Cal. 207
16
Shivaji Narayan, (1970) 73 Bom. L.R. 215
17
The Indian penal code by S.N. Misra, Central Law publications, 20th edition

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 (2) FORGERY IN OTHER COUNTRIES

UNITED KINGDOM

The crime is similar to that of India. It is mentioned under forgeries act 1913 in UK. This
mentions many types of forgeries and its punishment. 18 The original definition to forgery in the
act defines it as act to using the forged document as genuine. 19 But in India it is mentioned in
section 471 of IPC as a different crime from forgery itself. It says that using a forged document
as genuine has been made punishable under this section. The section states that whoever either
fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document or electronic record which he either
knows to be a forged document or electronic record or which he has reason to believe to be a
forged document or electronic record shall be punished in the same manner as if he had forged
such document or electronic record. The offender can be convicted under this section only when
he has fraudulent or dishonest intention and with such intention he uses any document or
electronic record as genuine when he knows the same to be forged or when he has reason to
believe that document or electronic record to be a forged document or electronic record under the
Indian Penal Code.

There was a controversy as to whether this section is directed against some other person than the
person who has actually done the forgery. The controversy seems to have been settled and it can
now be said that a forger can be punished both for forging a document as well as for using that
document as genuine.

18
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1913/27/body/enacted
19
Forgery Act 1913, Section 1

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In the U.S., depending on the type of documents forged, forgeries are primarily classified in
three degrees: first degree, second degree, and third degree. 20  The first two degrees are felonies
and the third degree amounts to a misdemeanor.  The first degree forgery involves the actual
presentation or use of any falsely made, altered or possessed document with the intent to deceive
or defraud.  The second degree forgery does not require use or presentation of the documents. 
No act is a crime if it has not been previously established as such either by statute or common
law.  Every state in the U.S. has established laws regarding forgery offenses.  The punishment
for forgery varies from place to place. In most states, a person convicted of misdemeanor must
face a jail sentence of at least one year.  However, a conviction for felony must face an
imprisonment more than one year.  In addition to jail sentence, a convict can be required to pay a
fine or make restitution to victim.

20
https://forgery.uslegal.com/punishments-for-forgery/

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 (3) MODERN CONTEXT OF FORGERY
In the modern context forgery is a very much of prevalent crime because of use of advance
computer technologies to forge a document. These forgery are very difficult to trace. They can
be traced by cross checking it with some existing proof if it comes in the light that a particular
document one is dealing with is forged. For example in case of forgery of prescription the
medical stores can crosscheck with the doctors.
Forgery can be as small as faking your mothers signature on a note justifying your absence from
school or as big as in the famous case of literary forgery which took place with the 1983
"discovery" of the alleged "Hitler Diaries." The diaries supposedly contained passages written by
Adolf Hitler between 1932 and 1945. The diaries were actually written by a forger named
Konrad Kujau in the early 1980's.21
In this era, Digital Image Forgery has been increasingly easy to perform, so the reliability of the
image is thus becoming an important issue to be focus on. It does not differ very much in nature
to conventional image forgery. Instead of using photograph digital image forgery deals with the
digital image. By using the tool such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Coral Paint fake images can
be created as some of the tools are open source. 22 Image forgery may lead to hazards. In banking
system image forgery is a big threat, this result into big frauds. Nowadays detecting these types
of forgeries has become very useful to reduce these problems at present. To determine whether a
digital image is original is a big challenge. To find the marks of tampering in a digital image is a
challenging task. Tampering is normally done to cover objects in an image in order to either
produce false proof or to make the image more pleasant for appearance. 23 There are many cases
in digital image forgery, all this cases are classified into three categories based on the process of
creating fake images the group are image retouching, and image splicing, copy-move attack.
Image forgery is basically a modification of image to conceal some meaningful or useful
information. The common manipulations of a digital image are copy-move and cut-paste forgery.
The different methods of forgery detection include examination, authentication and verification.
Multiple methods of detection may be used to correctly identify a single forgery. More than one
opinion on the results of detection methods also may be needed to confirm that a forgery has
definitely occurred. Detection of forgery through examination, authentication and verification
21
http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/forgery.html (02/10/17)
22
Image forgery detection by Hany Farid
23
Ibid

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may be used to identify almost any type of forgery, including handwritten forgery, counterfeit
forgery, digital forgery and art forgery.

Forgery detection by examination involves looking closely at an object to determine if it is valid.

For example, to check an art piece for signs of forgery, an examiner may look for indications that
the piece was not created in a specific time period. If a piece of supposedly antique art is in a
new wood frame or machine-made nails were used in a supposedly aged frame, these signs of
forgery may be detected through an examination.

Forgery detection by authentication will use tests to conclude if an item is real. Authentication
must be carried out with a measurable test.24 For example, methods of authentication on
suspected forged art may include carbon dating, X-ray diffraction and infrared analysis. Some
methods of authentication are more reliable than others, and newly released authentication tests
usually must be backed up with another reliable test until the new tests are proved reliable.25

Forgery detection through verification involves obtaining confirmation and locating evidence to
conclusively determine if forgery has occurred. Verification is often used to detect forged e-
mails for job scams; the receiver of the e-mail may simply look up the information of the
company or call a representative of the company to confirm whether the e-mail is real. 26 A check
can be verified by depositing the check in a bank and waiting for it to clear, and a signature may
be verified if witnesses can swear or prove they were present when a document was signed.

With so many types of forgery used to create counterfeit art, money and financial documents,
one suspected forgery may have to go through examination, authentication and verification
before it can be reasonably identified as real or fake. In some instances, even after the suspected
item has been completely reviewed, an argument about its authenticity can continue. As
counterfeiters learn more and more advanced ways to create forgeries, the technology of forgery
detection has had to advance, as well. The science of forgery detection continues to evolve with
new methods of examination, authentication and verification.

24
IJSTR VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2013 ,A Survey On Various Methods To Detect Forgery And
Computer Crime In Transaction Database by Pratik Patel, Shailendra Mishra
25
www.sciencedirect.com
26
Detecting Forgery: Forensic Investigation of Documents by Joe Nickell

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CONCLUSION, CRITICISM AND SUGGESTIONS

Forgery is a crime of altering, counterfeiting or making of fake documents for the purpose of
deceiving any person. The main objective of forgery is to gain something illegally or to cause

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someone wrongful loss. Forgery is basically an economic crime so it is done only for monetary
benefit mostly. Forgery is basically an act of defrauding somebody by use of fake documents.
Forgery is called a white collar crime because it is a non-violent crime which is done only for
financial gain. White collar crime was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as
"a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his
occupation".27
White-collar crime shall constitute those classes of non-violent illegal activities which
principally involve traditional notions of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of
trust, subterfuge or illegal circumvention.
Things that can be forged includes mainly of but are not limited to wills, patent, cheque,
signature, pieces of art, deeds, stock certificate etc.
A criminal record for forgery is very damaging because it can hinder many aspects of day to day
living, from getting credit to obtaining employment opportunities. The only way to avoid these
frightening prospects is to get a criminal defense attorney who will aggressively seek to discredit
the evidence of the prosecution and law enforcement.

The stringent laws can be helpful for the crime of forgery. It is very important for us to make
lawful detection techniques which abide by law so as to not be self-incriminatory. So from my
point of view a cross checking phenomena devised to check every forgery will be very
important. Also the digitalization of the public records will be helpful because to do forgery a
very advanced hacking skill will be necessary, so ordinary men will not be able to forge it.
There is already existing laws of forgery which are pretty much stringent so nothing can be done
in making new laws. To curb the forgery there are many methods which can range from very
complex forensics techniques to very simple analyzing techniques. So in banks or schools or
universities these methods can be taught to people who are working there in there training
sessions.
Another one can be a way to aware people of crime and punishment of forgery. So there may not
be sufficient means present to detect the modern day techniques of forgery but by teaching
people and making more professionals in the field of forgery by inculcating more courses then
the problem can be solved.

27
Edwin H. Sutherland, White Collar Crime: The Uncut Version (1983).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

 The Indian Penal Code Bare Act.

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  Information Technology Act Bare Act.
 Edwin H. Sutherland, White Collar Crime: The Uncut Version (1983).
 Detecting Forgery: Forensic Investigation of Documents by Joe Nickel.
 Ratanlal and Dhirajlal, the Indian Penal Code, Thirty Fourth Edition, 2014.
 The Indian penal code by S.N. Misra, Central Law publications, 20th edition.

ARTICLES

 IJSTR VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2013, A Survey On Various Methods To

Detect Forgery And Computer Crime In Transaction Database by Pratik Patel, Shailendra
Mishra.
 Image forgery detection by Hany Farid.

WEBSITE

 www.criminal.findlaw.coml
 www.uslegal.com
 www.shareyouressays.com
 www.criminal.findlaw.com
 www.legislation.gov.uk
 www.sciencedirect.com

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