Forensic Science examination of handwriting and signature by private laboratory

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    • #3303
      Anonymous
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      Dear Sir,

      I want to get one document examined for forgery and in this document the handwriting as well as signatures both are suspected to be forged by my opposite party. Can I send this document to the Government’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory? Or can I send it to some private laboratory which examines such handwriting and signature? Will the court believe the private laboratory opinion?

    • #3304

      Though you have not made it clear, it appears that you have a private complaint case or the complaint is yet to be filed by you before police.

      Please note that a Government forensic science laboratory may not accept a request for examination of handwriting and/or signature unless such request comes from police or court. So, if you are yet to file the FIR with the police, the police can send that document to the Government laboratory for such forensic examination during its investigation. In the case of a private complaint case (which does not involve police), you may make an application to the court for directing forensic examination of the document by a Government laboratory, and if the court agrees to give such a direction, then also such Government laboratory would examine it.

      However, if it is not possible for you to get the police or court to make such a request / direction to the Government laboratory, such laboratory may not accept a document for examination from a private person directly (though, you may try contacting them). But, of course, you may get such document examined from a private forensic science expert, and there are many such private experts. Their expert reports on scientific examination of the handwriting and signature may be considered as trustworthy if you can show that such expert has sufficient technical qualifications / expertise and has also given a well-reasoned opinion for his examination. The opinion of the private scientific expert may also be considered admissible under Section 45 of the Evidence Act as scientific expert’s opinion, subject to conditions such as above. There are many retired scientific experts who earlier worked in Government forensic science laboratories who have sufficient expertise in the field. You’ll also have to send some specimen handwriting / signature samples of the person concerned along with his questioned handwriting / signature. For this, you may use some of his previous documents (which are not disputed) which contain his handwriting / signature.

           


      Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.

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