The Supreme Court has set aside the conviction of a woman accused of forging her marksheet and revaluation notification to secure admission in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Part-III course at a Nagpur college. She had been held guilty by the trial court under Sections 420, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating, forgery, and using a forged document, with the appellate and revisional courts affirming the conviction.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta found the conviction unsustainable, pointing to significant evidentiary and procedural shortcomings. The Court observed that no handwriting or forensic expert was examined to establish authorship of the alleged tampering, and the documents had passed through multiple institutional hands including an admission clerk and the college principal before reaching the university. In such circumstances, it was unsafe to conclude that the accused had effected the tampering.
The Court further noted that the requirement of proving mens rea was not satisfied, as the documents bore official endorsements and had undergone administrative scrutiny. It also criticized the recording of the accused’s statement under Section 313 CrPC through omnibus questions, which denied her a fair opportunity to respond to specific allegations.
Reiterating that “suspicion, however grave, cannot replace proof beyond reasonable doubt,” the Court held that the prosecution failed to prove either authorship of the forgery or knowledge of it. Accordingly, the conviction and sentence were quashed, and the appeal was allowed.
