Section 252: Using a forged seal or Royal Signature
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดใช้ดวงตรา รอยตราหรือพระปรมาภิไธยดังกล่าวมาในมาตรา ๒๕๐ หรือมาตรา ๒๕๑ อันเป็นดวงตรา รอยตราหรือพระปรมาภิไธยที่ทำปลอมขึ้น ต้องระวางโทษดังที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรานั้น ๆ
English translation
Whoever uses a seal, a seal impression, or the Royal Signature referred to in Section 250 or Section 251, being a seal, seal impression, or Royal Signature that has been forged, shall be liable to the punishment prescribed in that Section.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 252 is the using limb of the seal offences, and it borrows the penalty of the forging section rather than setting one. Section 250 punishes forging the State Seal, an impression of it, or the Royal Signature, at five to twenty years and a fine of 100,000 to 400,000 baht. Section 251 punishes forging a seal or seal impression of a government department, of a public organisation or of an official, at one to seven years and a fine of 20,000 to 140,000 baht. Where a person uses such a forged seal, impression or signature, Section 252 applies the punishment prescribed in whichever of those two sections the object belongs to. The forging and the using are separate acts, so a person who both forged the seal and then used it may face both provisions. Section 253 is a different case again: it deals with a genuine seal or impression obtained and then used unlawfully in a manner likely to cause damage, and it fixes the punishment at two thirds of that prescribed in Section 250 or Section 251.
Why this matters in practice
The first question is which section the object belongs to, because the two ranges are far apart: a forged State Seal or Royal Signature carries five to twenty years under Section 250, while a forged departmental or official seal carries one to seven years under Section 251. The second is whether the allegation is using a forged seal, which is this section, forging one, which is Section 250 or Section 251 directly, or misusing a genuine seal, which is Section 253 at two thirds of the penalty. In practice a using count rarely stands alone: it is usually charged with forging and using the document the seal was stamped on. The offence is not compoundable; see criminal law in Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 5134/2563 (2020)
Forging an official's seal and using that forged seal are distinct offences; where the offender does not forge the seal anew but affixes the same already-forged seal to a further document, that conduct is punished as using a forged official seal, not as a fresh forgery.
The defendant stamped an already-forged official seal onto a fake hotel business licence. Because he did not forge the seal again but reused the existing forged seal, the court treated that conduct as using a forged official seal as a further count, alongside the seal-forgery and document-forgery charges.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 8379/2557 (2014)
Where forging an official's seal-imprint is carried out as part of a single scheme together with forging official documents and a rights document that is an official document, the acts constitute one offence violating several statutes and are punished under the most severe provision.
The defendant forged an official's seal-imprint together with official documents and a rights document that was an official document. The court treated these as a single act violating several provisions and imposed punishment under the heaviest, the forgery of a rights document that is an official document.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 37 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 2020)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3887/2532 (1989)
- Decision 3704/2531 (1988)
- Decision 5134/2563 (2020)
- Decision 3520/2527 (1984)
- Decision 2254/2521 (1978)
- Decision 8490/2552 (2009)
- Decision 1001/2533 (1990)
- Decision 242/2511 (1968)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 251 36
- Section 265 31
- Section 268 31
- Section 264 27
- Section 91 21
- Section 83 20
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What does Section 252 punish?
Using a seal, a seal impression or the Royal Signature referred to in Section 250 or Section 251 where that object has been forged.
What is the penalty for using a forged official seal?
The penalty prescribed in the section the object belongs to. A forged State Seal or Royal Signature falls under Section 250, five to twenty years and a fine of 100,000 to 400,000 baht. A forged departmental, public organisation or official seal falls under Section 251, one to seven years and a fine of 20,000 to 140,000 baht.
Is using a forged seal a separate offence from forging it?
Yes. Forging is punished by Section 250 or Section 251 and using a forged seal by this section. Using a genuine seal unlawfully is a further and different case, dealt with by Section 253 at two thirds of the punishment.
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 252 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 252. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-252/ (accessed 20 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 252 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-252/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-252/"><p>Whoever uses a seal, a seal impression, or the Royal Signature referred to in Section 250 or Section 251, being a seal, seal impression, or Royal Signature that has been forged, shall be liable to the punishment prescribed in that Section.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 252 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-252/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.