Offences relating to coin and government stamps

You pay for a cup of tea with a five hundred rupee note and the stall owner holds it against the light, checking the watermark. He is protecting himself, but the law is protecting something larger: trust in money. If fake notes circulate freely, nobody can trust any note. The same is true of the stamp paper you buy for a rent agreement and the coin in your pocket. Chapter X of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita treats attacks on these as attacks on the State's own credibility.

In two minutes

Chapter X of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (ss.178–188) punishes counterfeiting, using, possessing or making the tools for counterfeit coin, revenue stamps, currency-notes and bank-notes (the heaviest offences carry life or up to ten years), misusing or re-using genuine stamps, fictitious postage stamps, and wrongdoing by mint employees.

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