Section 164 - Special provisions relating to forgery

(1) A person forges a document if that person makes or alters the document, or a material part of the document, with intent to cause it to be believed

(a) that the document or the part has been so made or altered by a person who did not in fact so make or alter it; or

(b) that the document or the part has been so made or altered with the authority or consent of a person who did not in fact give the authority or consent; or

(c) that the document or the part has been so made or altered at a time different from that at which it was in fact so made or altered.

(2) A person who issues or uses a document which is exhausted or cancelled, with intent that it may pass or have effect as if it were not exhausted or cancelled, commits the criminal offence of forging the document.

(3) The making or alteration of a document or a part of a document by a person in the name of that person is forgery if the making or alteration is with any of the intents mentioned in subsection (1).

(4) The making or alteration of a document or a part of a document by a person in a name which is not the real name or the ordinary name of that person is forgery if the making or alteration is with any of the intents mentioned in subsection (1).

(5) For the purposes of this section,

(a) it is immaterial whether the person by whom, or with whose authority or consent, a document or a part of the document purports to have been made, or is intended to be believed to have been made, is living or dead, or a fictitious person;

(b) a word, letter, figure, mark, seal, or thing expressed on or in a document, or forming part of, or attached to, the document, and a colouring, shape, or device used in the document, which purports to indicate the person by whom, or with whose authority or consent the document or the part has been made, altered executed, delivered, attested, verified, certified, or issued, or which may affect the purport, operation, or validity of the document in a material particular, is a material part of the document;

(c) “alteration” includes any cancelling, erasure, severance, interlineations, or transposition of or in a document or of or in a material part of the document, and the addition of a material part to the document and any other act or device by which the purport, operation, or validity of the document may be affected.

(6) This section applies to the forgery of a stamp or trade-mark in the manner in which it applies to the forgery of a document.

Illustrations

1. A endorses A’s name on a cheque, meaning it to pass as an endorsement by another person of the same name. Here A has committed forgery.

2. A is living under an assumed name. It is not forgery for A to execute a document in that name, unless A does so with the intent to defraud, etc.

3. A with intent to defraud, makes a promissory note in the name of an imaginary person. Here A commits forgery.