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Supreme Court of India 2020-01-14 partly_allowed

PADUM KUMAR vs THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

Bench: 3 — R. Banumathi, A.S. Bopanna, Hrishikesh Roy

In Brief

A postal worker was convicted of forging a recipient's signature on a delivery slip to misappropriate registered securities (Indira Vikas Patra worth Rs. 20,000) in 1992. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction under Sections 467 and 468 IPC, finding that handwriting expert evidence corroborating the alleged recipient's denial of the signature, combined with the appellant's exclusive access to the document, established guilt beyond reasonable doubt. However, given the 26-year delay between the crime and conviction and the appellant's detention of 18 months, the Court reduced the sentence to time already served and ordered release.

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Criminal Law Evidence Law Forgery Handwriting Evidence Expert Opinion Indian Penal Code

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