Saji Koduvath, Advocate, Kottayam.
Documents produced in court have to pass through two steps. They are:
- Admission and exhibition (if relevant)
- Proof (or truth of contents, veracity, reliability, etc.).
The question of proof comes for consideration only if the first step (admission and exhibition, as relevant) is successfully covered. In Anvar P.V. v. P.K. Basheer, AIR 2015 SC 180, our Apex Court held as under:
- “Genuineness, veracity or reliability of the evidence is seen by the court only after the stage of relevancy and admissibility.”
Proof is of Two Types:
First, Formal Proof, or Proof as to existence of the document. The modes of proof of documents are governed under Sec. 64 to 73A of the Evd. Act.
Second, Substantive Proof or Proof as to truth. Besides the formal proof, in most cases (excepting a few cases where signature, hand-writing etc. alone are considered), the court acts upon a document, only when ‘truth’ of the contents of the document is established.
- Proof as to truth is to be established-
- (i) by oral evidence of one who can vouchsafe the same or
- (ii) by circumstantial evidence or
- (iii) by invoking ‘presumption’ or
- (iv) by express admission by the other side.
Modes of Proof of Documents
Documents can be proved (both, ‘formal proof’ and ‘truth of the contents’) in the following ways:
- Admission of the person who wrote or signed the document (Sec. 17, 21, 58, 67, 70).
- Evidence of a person in whose presence the document was signed or written – ocular evidence (Sec. 59).
- An attesting witness (Sec. 59).
- Opinion of a person who is acquainted with the writing of the person who signed or wrote (Sec. 47).
- Admission made by the person who signed or wrote the document made in judicial proceedings (Sec. 32, 33).
- Evidence of a handwriting expert-opinion evidence/scientific evidence (Sec.45).
- Evidence of a person who in routine has been receiving the document; or a document signed by such a person in the ordinary course of his business or official duty, though he may have never seen the author signing the document (Sec. 32, 34, 35 or 114).
- Public documents – Sec. 74 – 77.
- Invoking (specific) presumptions under Sec. 79 to 90A.
- Presumptions (general) under Sec. 114.
- Circumstantial evidence: on probability or inferences (Sec. 114).
- Court-comparison (Sec. 73).
- Facts judicially noticeable (Sec. 56 and 57).
- A fact of common-knowledge. (It does not require proof. See: Union Of India Vs. Virendra Bharti: 2011-2 ACC 886, 2010 ACJ 2353; Rakhal Chakraborty Vs. Sanjib Kumar Roy: 1998-1 GauLR 253, 1997-2 GauLT 705)
- Internal evidence afforded by the contents of the document; a link in a chain of correspondence; recipient of the document. (Mobarik Ali Ahmed Vs. State of Bombay, AIR 1957 SC 857)
