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468. The document cannot be said to be a forged one and when charges of forgery were not established, there was no question of a forged document being there. On hypothetical basis the High Court has proceeded to conclude that the document was forged as it attributed knowledge of the forgery and manipulation of the documents to the appellant.

All non-genuine documents are not forged. They must be covered by the conditions indicated in Sections 463 and 464. There is no mens rea involved. Unless the part allegedly played by A-4 is established, there cannot be a forged document. The prosecution has failed to prove the minimum requirements of law. It is a case of prosecution having not proved its case. Even if it is assumed that the document was forged, A-1 cannot be said to have knowledge or to have used it fraudulently or dishonestly. There must be a reason to believe that it was a forged one. The expression 'reason to believe' is defined in Section 26 IPC. When the facts of the case in the background of Section 26 are noted, it cannot be said that the appellants had reason to believe that the document was forged. The expression used is 'reason to believe' and not 'reason to suspect' which are conceptually different. When the documents were handed over by A-4, there was no scope for either A-2 or A-1 entertaining any doubt, because the source from which the document came is that of Assistant Registrar who is authorised to issue the certificate. The criminal intent is totally eliminated by he factual scenario. The natural reaction would have been to believe the document to be correct. No knowledge can be attributed to A-1 when the forgery or alleged conspiracy is not established. When charge of conspiracy has been not held to be proved, the knowledge cannot be traced to the accused persons. Since no conspiracy has been found in A-1 and A-2, by necessary implication Section 34 is eliminated. Even otherwise, the incident took place more than quarter of a century back when A-1 was a student and aged about 17 years, and this is a fit case for extending the benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act 1958, (in short the 'Probation Act').

Another interesting feature has been noticed by the High Court to show how it would have been impossible for A-1 and A-2 to overlook something tainted appearing to even naked eyes. Exh.D-4 is dated 30.6.1980. It was not disputed before the High Court that the results were published for the first year degree course on 30.6.1988. If the results were published on 30.6.1980, Exh.D-4 which is purported to have been drawn up after revaluation could not have indicated a date seal of 30.6.1980. These factors clearly go to show that A-1 and A-2 had sufficient knowledge that there was forgery and they had used the document knowing it to be forged. The pretended ignorance stood belied and self condemned on the indisputable materials on record. The plea of innocence as presently advanced has no substance.
The essential ingredients of Section 471 are (i) fraudulent or dishonest use of document as genuine (ii) knowledge or reasonable belief on the part of person using the document that it is a forged one. Section 471 is intended to apply to persons other than forger himself, but the forger himself is not excluded from the operation of the Section. To attract Section 471, it is not necessary that the person held guilty under the provision must have forged the document himself or that the person independently charged for forgery of the document must of necessity be convicted, before the person using the forged document, knowing it to be a forged one can be convicted, as long as the fact that the document used stood established or proved to be a forged one. The act or acts which constitute the commission of the offence of forgery are quite different from the act of making use of a forged document. The expression 'fraudulently and dishonestly' are defined in Sections 25 and 24 IPC respectively. For an offence under Section 471, one of the necessary ingredients is fraudulent and dishonest use of the document as genuine. The act need not be both dishonest and fraudulent. The use of document as contemplated by Section 471 must be voluntary one. For sustaining conviction under Section 471 it is necessary for the prosecution to prove that accused knew or had reason to believe that the document to be a forged one. Whether the accused knew or had reason to believe the document in question to be a forged has to be adjudicated on the basis of materials and the finding recorded in that regard is essentially factual.