Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 466
repealedForgery of record of Court or of public register, etc.
Whoever forges a document or 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.
Why this exists
Some documents are trusted precisely because they come from courts or government registries -- a birth certificate, a marriage register entry, a court order. If these can be faked, the whole system of public records collapses. This section punishes forging such documents more harshly than ordinary forgery because the damage extends beyond one victim to public confidence in official records. The IPC was repealed on 1 July 2024 and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which now governs these offences.