The Punjab and Haryana High Court has clarified an important point about starting criminal proceedings in cases of document forgery.
The court ruled that a complaint from the court is only required when the forgery happens while the documents are in the court’s custody.
Justice Bedi’s Ruling On The Case
This clarification came from Justice JS Bedi, who overturned a decision made by a Kurukshetra court about a case involving forged documents used to release a truck involved in a 2000 accident. The issue arose from a 2009 appellate court ruling that acquitted two people convicted in 2007 for forgery.
The acquittal was based on the argument that Section 195 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was not followed. This section says that a court can’t take action for certain offenses unless there’s a written complaint from the concerned public servant—in this case, the court where the forgery occurred.
Justice Bedi pointed out that the forged documents, like surety bonds and affidavits, were created outside the court’s control and only later submitted as evidence. Because of this, no complaint from the court was needed to start the case.
Court’s ruling was based on an earlier Supreme Court judgment, which distinguishes between forgeries committed within the court’s custody and those committed outside of it.
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