GEQD stands for Government Examiner of Questioned Documents and it refers to a government position with the basic task of providing forensic document analysis and services.

1. History of GEQD Kolkata
By,
Madona Mathew
SFSRM, RRU
Madona Mathew
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2. Introduction
• GEQD stands for Government Examiner of Questioned Documents
and it refers to a government position with the basic task of
providing forensic document analysis and services.
• Many countries have their own so-called document examiners that
are needed in various cases wherein there are disputed documents
in terms of authorship or authenticity.
• In India, there are designated GEQD or document examiners across
the different states and all are under the government’s Ministry of
Home Affairs.
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3. • The basic purpose of having a GEQD is to check whether a particular
document is authentic or not.
• Authenticity may be checked through a variety of scientific methods
which are more commonly known as document forensics.
• Items such as alterations, forgeries, chain of document possession, and
damage to the document in question are all studied by a designated
GEQD or Government Examiner of Questioned Documents.
•
• The document examination is often requested during court hearings
wherein submitted documentary evidence may be in question or under
suspicion.
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4. History of Questioned Document examination
• Document examination has been in use for decades now
for disputed documents in the court of law.
• The history of questioned documents dates back to 3rd
century A.D.
• However, scientific document examination started
around the 18th century.
• The first case reported regarding the document
examination was in the 3rd century.
• In the 6th century (around 539 AD), Justinian code was
established by a Roman emperor Justinian in which the
guidelines for document examination were mandated.
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5. • In a famous case, Alphonse Bertillon
(inventor of Anthropometry) was also a
photographer and using the technology
accused an army person of forgery which was
later challenged by the experts from the US
and England.
• During the 1890s handwriting examination
was common and two experts Hagen and
Frazer published a book on disputed
documents.
• During the 1900s, Albert Sherman Osborn
wrote many articles related to typewriting
identification in 1901 before publishing a
book titled “Questioned Documents”.
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6. History of GEQD, Kolkata
• The British Government of Bengal felt the necessity of identifying the
handwritings on the secret documents connected with the Indian
independence movement.
• During the British rule, Mr CR. Hardless [then Superintendent in the
A.G.’s office in Bengal] was appointed to the post of Government
handwriting expert of Bengal in 1904.
• In 1906 the laboratory was shifted to Shimla under the control of
director CID where a post for handwriting experts of India was
appointed.
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7. History of GEQD, Kolkata
• Mr CR. Hardless was appointed to this post and was replaced soon by F.
Brewster, a police officer from the West Bengal CID as Government
examiner of questioned documents (GEQD).
• At first, the work of this office was mainly confined to the identification
of writings on secret documents. Later, as the application of this branch
of science was felt in many other cases, the services of this office were
thrown open to criminal as well as civil court cases.
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8. History of GEQD, Kolkata
• During the World War II, this organization took up the additional work of
secret censorship, including the detection of invisible writings and
training of military personnel in this field of science.
• In Independent India, GEQD helped with investigations in high-profile
cases as the multi-crore securities scam, the JMM bribery case, the
hawala scam of 1995-96, besides scores of national and international
criminal cases.
• In India, there are 3 designated GEQD in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shimla
which were merged in 1910 under Central Forensic science laboratories
in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh.
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9. GEQD
• The Institution of Government Examiner of Questioned Document
(GEQD) is one of the oldest in the world in the field of forensic
document sciences.
• In 1906, on the recommendation of the Police Commission, the
first unit of the GEQD was established at Shimla.
• The second unit of the GEQD started functioning in 1964 at
Kolkata.
• The third unit of the GEQD came into existence in 1968 at
Hyderabad.
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10. Control of the institutions
• The administrative control of these
institutions was initially under the
Intelligence Bureau (IB), under the then
Bureau of Police Research and
Development (BPR & D).
• Presently it is being controlled by the
Directorate of Forensic Science, New
Delhi. Min. of Home Affairs, Govt. of
India.
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11. Madona Mathew
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