In Brief
Padum Kumar was convicted by the High Court of Allahabad under Sections 467 and 468 IPC (forgery) for delivering a registered envelope with a forged signature on the delivery slip. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction, holding that the appellant, being the sole person with knowledge of the delivery, was duty-bound to explain the signature's origin; his failure to do so justified an adverse presumption. However, recognizing that the appellant had already served 18+ months in custody since 1992, the Court partly allowed the appeal by reducing his three-year sentence to the period already undergone.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.