Understanding Forgery And Use Of A Forged Document

Introduction 

“Commercial disputes being given a criminal colour” is a routine issue faced by criminal courts across the country, and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has also quashed several criminal complaints pertaining to commercial/civil claims for that reason. It is important to note that, in such criminal complaints, the usual allegations involve offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and the use of forged documents. 

Cheating and criminal breach of trust have been defined time and again by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, and it is now clear that any act of deception causing a person to part with his or her property is called cheating, while any act committed in breach of an entrustment for deriving a private benefit is called criminal breach of trust. What remains to be defined more clearly is the offence of forgery and the use of forged documents, which carry grave penal consequences and are among the most prevalent and pernicious forms of white-collar crime.