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Public and Private Documents Under

Indian Evidence Act
April 6, 2021 by Law Corner

Table of Contents [ hide ]

1) Introduction
2) Public Documents

3) Private Documents

4) Certified Copies of Public Documents and Its Admissibility as Evidence

5) Proof of Documents by Certified Copies

6) Proof of Other Official Documents

7) Conclusion

Introduction

In common parlance, the term, ‘Evidence’ refers to something that either proves
or disproves the existence of a particular disputed fact. This forms an
imperative part of the study of law that revolves around resolving disputes
based on the assertion of the existence or non-existence of certain facts
provided by either or both the parties involved in the dispute eventually leading
to the proving or disproving of the same. Thus, every country and its legal
system has its own ascertainment as to what constitutes evidence and what
does not. In India, the statutory body that governs evidence is the Indian
Evidence Act, 1872.
As per Section 3 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 Evidence is defined as a term
that means and includes ––

(1) all statements which the Court permits or requires to be made before it by
witnesses, in relation to matters of fact under inquiry; such statements are
called oral evidence;

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(2) all documents including electronic records produced for the inspection of
the Court; such documents are called documentary evidence.”

With reference to point (2) as mentioned above, documentary evidence as

provided in section 3 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 refers to evidence which
is given to the court in the text form is and there are broadly two forms of
documentary evidence – public and private.

Public Documents

As per Section 74 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 the following constitute as
public documents –

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1. Documents forming the acts, or records of the acts—

(i) of the sovereign authority – An example for this would be Legislations that

are made by both the Parliament and State Legislature

(ii) of official bodies and tribunals- This refers to other statutory bodies such

as labour tribunals, Central Administrative tribunals etc.

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(iii) of public officers, legislative, judicial and executive, of any part of India or

of the Commonwealth, or of a foreign country

2. Public records kept in any State of private documents- For instance,

Electoral rolls are documents that consist of a list of people who are entitled to
vote in a particular jurisdiction along with their personal information. However,
such documents are kept with the State thereby making them public records.
Similarly, Birth and Death registers etc.

In the case of Shri Keshav Gupta v Coal India Limited[1] the court held that
originally registered deeds with regard to land, sales, medico-legal records with
the exclusion of post mortem reports, school records, records of nationalized
banks, etc. are considered public documents.

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In another case of The Royal Sundaram Alliance v Gunasekaran[2] The court held
that certified copies of the orders of the civil court and First Information reports
are public reports.

Thus, it can be said that a public document is one such document which is
prepared by a public servant in the capacity of his official duty and is made
available to the public at large. However, in some exceptional cases, certain
private documents can be considered as public documents when it involves the
interests of the public and is prepared by a public servant. In Adarsh Cooperative
Society v Union of Indian and Others[3] the share certificates of the members of

the Adarsh housing society that would in normal circumstances be considered

as a private document was regarded to be a public document as the members
of the housing society were involved in illegal, fraudulent activities and such
documents were considered to be in record of public interest.
Private Documents

Section 75 of the Indian Evidence Act states that all other documents that are

not public are private documents. For example, Mortgage deeds, contracts etc.
are private documents.

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Private documents refer to those documents which are prepared between

individuals for their own personal interest that do not concern the public at
large. Such documents are kept in the custody of the individual concerned and
certified copies of the private documents are usually not considered as
evidence unless proof of the original copy is provided.

Certified Copies of Public Documents and Its Admissibility as

Evidence

Section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act states the following –

“Every public officer having the custody of a public document, which any person
has a right to inspect, shall give that person on demand a copy of it on payment
of the legal fees therefore, together with a certificate written at the foot of such
copy that it is a true copy of such document or part thereof, as the case may be
and such certificate shall be dated and subscribed by such officer with his name
and his official title, and shall be sealed, whenever such officer is authorised by
law to make use of a seal;

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and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies.”

Explanation –
Simply put, this section states that in the ordinary course of official duty if an
officer is authorized to inspect a particular document and determine its truth on
the demand of its copy by an individual who has paid the required legal fees, it
will be deemed that such officer has custody to do so and thus, the certificate
will have the name and official title of such officer and will be sealed and
considered as certified copy.

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Such requested documents must be public in nature and in the custody of a

public officer. The public document is given to an individual who –

a. Has the right to inspect such a document

b. Has made a demand for a copy
c. Has made the payment of the legal fee required

Once the above-mentioned criteria are met the public officer while providing the
certificates has to mention that –

a. Such document is a true copy

b. The date of issue
c. Name of the officer in charge and his official title
d. Sign of such officer
e. Seal of the office, if any.

In the case of Rasipuram Union Motor Service v Commissioner of Income Tax[4]

the court held that the right to inspect a document is an important factor to
consider. If such a right exists, then there is an entitlement to get a copy of the
public document but when there is a lack of such right there also exists no
entitlement to inspect public documents.

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In the case of Madameanchi Ramappa & Anr v Muthalur Bojjjappa[5] the court
held that any certified copy of a public document or record that is presented as
evidence in court does not require any further proof.

Hence, as per section 76 the mere certification of a public document is enough

to consider it as admissible evidence as the court presumes that every certified
public document issued by an officer is done so in his official capacity when his
sign and seal is present. However, the genuineness of such documents can be
challenged by the opposing party to the dispute. Thus, certified copies of public
documents are admissible as evidence in court and no further evidence needs
to be entertained with regard to such matters once the documents are
submitted, as certified copies of public documents are considered to be proof of
facts.

Proof of Documents by Certified Copies

Section 77 deals with proof of documents by production of certified copies.

This section states that “such certified copies may be produced in proof of the
contents of the public documents or parts of the public documents of which
they purport to be copied.”

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In order to establish proof and provide validity of the same, original public
documents cannot be taken away from the custody of the public officer every
time there is a need, thus copies of such public documents or parts of the public
documents that are to be used as evidence will be considered valid and
sufficient. For example, in the case of Seema v Ashwani Kumar[6] the court held
that a Marriage certificate is sufficient evidentiary proof of the marriage.

Proof of Other Official Documents

Section 78 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 mentions the various ways in which
different public documents can be proved. They are as follows –

1. Central Acts, orders or notifications – Can be proved by records certified by

the Heads of the departments concerned.

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2. Proceedings of the Legislatures – Can be proved by proceedings, Journals or

copies published by the Government.

3. Proclamations, orders or regulations issued by Her Majesty or Privy Council

– Proved by copies of Gazette notification from London.

4. The acts of the executives or proceedings of the foreign legislatures – Can

be proved by official journals published by concerned authorities.

5. Municipal bodies proceedings –Can be proved either by publications of such

body certified by their legal keeper or through a published book by an authority.

6. Public documents of some other class in a foreign country – Can be proved

by the original or certified copy issued by the legal keeper of the document with
a certificate and seal of a notary public, Indian counsel or diplomatic agent
based on the laws of the respective country.

Conclusion

The distinction between a private and public document is an important one to

make. The former is used by an individual in a personal capacity and the latter is
concerned with the larger public interest. Moreover, Public documents as
secondary evidence are admissible as evidence in court and are presumed to be
genuine based on the sign and seal of the official involved in inspecting such a
document and no further proof is required. On the contrary, with private
documents, there is no presumption of genuineness and such documents are
subject to rigorous scrutiny. The division of public and private documents as
provided by the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 ensures that there is no ambiguity
and confusion in matters relating to documentary evidence.

[1]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1568813/

[2]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/84920798/

[3]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/131217662/

[4]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/575415/

[5]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1439781/

[6]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1037437/

This article is authored by Shivani S, 3rd Year BA.LLB(Hons.) student at ICFAI

Law School, Hyderabad.

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