Proof of other official documents
AI Assist
Summary
Certain public documents are admissible by specified official records, certified copies or government-published copies instead of oral proof. Central and State acts, orders and notifications are proved by departmental records certified by the department head or by documents printed by government order. Legislative journals, municipal proceedings, foreign official acts and other public documents have their own prescribed modes such as official journals, certified copies, the London Gazette or consular/notary authentication.
Example
Priya needs to prove a State government notification that her landlord relied on for a building permit. She obtains a copy certified by the head of the relevant department and files it in court. The certified departmental record is accepted as proof of the notification without separate oral evidence.
Bare Act
Enacted textThe following public documents may be proved as follows:-
(1) Acts, orders or notifications of the Central Government in any of its departments, or of the Crown Representative or of any State Government or any department of any State Government—
by the records of the departments, certified by the head of those departments respectively, or by any document purporting to be printed by order of any such Government or as the case may be, of the Crown Representative;
(2) The proceedings of the Legislatures—
by the journals of those bodies respectively, or by published Acts or abstracts, or by copies purporting to be printed by order of the Government concerned;
(3) Proclamations, orders or regulations issued by Her Majesty or by the Privy Council, or by any department of Her Majesty’s Government—
by copies or extracts contained in the London Gazette, or purporting to be printed by the Queen’s printer;
(4) the acts of the Executive or the proceedings of the Legislature of a foreign country—
by journals published by their authority, or commonly received in that country as such, or by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign, or by a recognition thereof in some Central Act;
(5) The proceedings of a municipal body in a State—
by a copy of such proceedings, certified by the legal keeper thereof, or by a printed book purporting to be published by the authority of such body;
(6) Public documents of any other class in a foreign country—
by the original, or by a copy certified by the legal keeper thereof, with a certificate under the seal of a Notary Public, or of an Indian Consul or diplomatic agent that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original, and upon proof of the character of the document according to the law of the foreign country.
STATE AMENDMENT
West Bengal
After section 78, insert the following section namely:
“78A. Copies of public documents, to be as good as original documents in certain cases:- Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, where any public documents concerning any areas within West Bengal have been kept in Pakistan, then copies of such public documents shall, on being authenticated in such manner as may be prescribed from time to time by the State Government by notification in the Official Gazette, be deemed to have taken the place of and to be, the original documents from which such copies were made and all references to the original documents shall be construed as including reference to such copies.”
Sections 79 to 90A – Presumptions as to documents
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