Section 251: Forging an official or public body seal

Firm annotation

Section 251 protects the lesser seals of the state, as against the State Seal and the Royal Signature protected by Section 250. Its elements are (1) forging (2) a seal or a seal impression (3) of a government department, of a public organisation, or of an official. The offence is complete on the forging alone: no use of the forged seal and no resulting damage need be shown. The penalty is one to seven years and a fine from 20,000 to 140,000 baht, the fine being mandatory rather than an alternative, against five to twenty years under Section 250. Three neighbouring provisions complete the scheme: using a forged seal of either kind is Section 252, which takes the penalty of the section the article falls under; obtaining a genuine seal and using it unlawfully in a manner likely to cause damage is Section 253, at two thirds of that penalty; and bringing a counterfeit or altered seal into the Kingdom is Section 255. Where the forger also uses the seal, Section 263 punishes the course of conduct once only, under this section. The current rates were set by Section 4 of the Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 26) B.E. 2560.