Section 73

Section 73 targets the publication or circulation of fraudulent or invalid electronic signature certificates. It addresses three specific scenarios: (a) publishing a certificate that was not actually issued by the CA named in it — creating a forged certificate; (b) publishing a certificate that the named subscriber has not accepted — the certificate may be validly issued but the subscriber rejected it, and circulating such a certificate falsely implies the subscriber's consent to its use; and (c) publishing a revoked or suspended certificate as if it were valid — inducing reliance on a certificate the CA has determined is no longer trustworthy. The exception for revoked/suspended certificates is important: publishing them for the purpose of verifying a digital signature that was created before the revocation is permitted. This preserves the ability to authenticate historical documents — if a contract was signed with a valid certificate that was later revoked, the revoked certificate may still be referenced to confirm the signature was valid at the time of signing. The knowledge requirement ('with the knowledge that') is mens rea — the accused must know the certificate is false or invalid; innocent publication does not attract liability. Section 73 works in tandem with Section 71 (misrepresentation to obtain a certificate) and Section 74 (fraudulent publication) to create a comprehensive PKI fraud framework.