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Indian Penal Code, 1860 · Chapter XVIII: Of Offences Relating to Documents and to Property Marks

Section 466: Forgery of record of Court or of public register, etc

The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

In plain words

Forging a document or electronic record that purports to be a court record or proceeding, a register of birth, baptism, marriage or burial, a register kept by a public servant, a certificate or document made by a public servant in an official capacity, an authority to bring or defend a suit or confess judgment, or a power of attorney, is punishable with imprisonment of either description for up to seven years, and a fine.

  • Here a register includes any list, data or record of entries kept in electronic form as defined in the Information Technology Act, 2000.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Official text

[Whoever forges a document or an electronic record], 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 as such, or a certificate or document purporting to be made 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 imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

[Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, “register” includes any list, data or record of any entries maintained in the electronic form as defined in clause (r) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000).]

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 466