False-dated pronotes used in income-tax proceedings amount to forgery and false evidence, with liability for valuable securities.

A document knowingly made to bear a false date and produced in a judicial proceeding to mislead the authority amounts to a forged false document made with intent to defraud. Proceedings before an Income-tax Officer are judicial proceedings under section 136 of the Income-tax Act, so a false document filed there may attract section 193 IPC. Because the pronotes were executed on dates different from those they purported to bear, were used to support a false loan claim, and were valuable securities, liability under sections 193 and 467 IPC followed; the revision was dismissed and the convictions were sustained.

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Issues: Whether the pronotes executed and attested on later dates, but produced as if they were contemporaneous, constituted false documents made with intent to defraud so as to attract liability under Sections 193 and 467 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Analysis: Proceedings before the Income-tax Officer are judicial proceedings by virtue of Section 136 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and a false statement or document produced therein may found an offence under Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. A document is forged when it is a false document made so as to appear genuine, and forgery under Sections 463 and 464 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 requires making of such false document with intent to defraud. The pronotes were found to have been executed on dates different from those they purported to bear, were used to support a false loan claim, and were intended to mislead the Income-tax Officer about the existence and timing of the alleged borrowings. As the pronotes were valuable securities, their fabrication also attracted Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Conclusion: The applicants were rightly held guilty under Sections 193 and 467 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Final Conclusion: The revision failed, and the convictions and sentences for the offences under Sections 193 and 467 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 were sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: A document knowingly made to bear a false date and produced in a judicial proceeding to mislead the authority is a forged false document made with intent to defraud, and when such document is a valuable security, liability under Section 467 also follows.

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