Public and Private Documents; Proof by Certified Copies (ss. 74–78) — BSA (Law of Evidence) Notes

Public and Private Documents; Proof by Certified Copies (ss. 74–78)

You cannot walk into a Sub-Registrar’s office and carry off the original register of a thousand sale deeds to show a court — nor should every litigant who needs one page of it be allowed to. So the law splits documents in two. For public records it gives you a cheap, reliable substitute — a certified copy that the law treats as good as the original. This is the single most-asked topic in Unit III, and it is really one clean idea: public documents are proved by certified copies.

Every document is either public or private, and the classification decides how it is proved.

A. Public and private documents — s. 74

Section 74 defines both. Public documents are:

Documents forming the acts or records of the acts of — (i) the sovereign authority; (ii) official bodies and tribunals; and (iii) public officers (legislative, judicial and executive) of any part of India or of a foreign country; and
Public records kept in any State or Union Territory of private documents — for example, a registered sale deed: the deed is private, but the registered record of it kept by the Registrar is a public document.

Section 74(2) then says, in one line, that all other documents are private. So there is no separate “definition” section for private documents — they are simply the residue. A private letter, an unregistered agreement, a personal diary — all private.

🔑 Note the number shift under the BSA: the 1872 Act put public documents in IEA s. 74 and private documents in a separate IEA s. 75. The BSA combines both into s. 74 — public in s. 74(1), private in s. 74(2) — so every following section moves up by one. Use the BSA numbers below.

B. How public documents are proved — ss. 75–76 (certified copies)

The whole payoff of calling a document “public” is the certified-copy route:

Section 75 — every public officer having custody of a public document must, on demand and payment of the legal fees, give a certified copy of it (a copy with a certificate at the foot, signed and dated, stating it is a true copy, with the officer’s name and official title and seal).
Section 76 — such certified copies may be produced in proof of the contents of the public document (or the relevant part). This is the key rule: a certified copy of a public document is admissible without producing the original, and it needs no further proof. Recall s. 60(e): where the original is a public document, only a certified copy — no other kind of secondary evidence — will do.

So to prove a registered sale deed’s contents you produce a certified copy from the Registrar; you neither need, nor may substitute any other secondary evidence for, that certified copy.

C. Other official documents and the presumption — ss. 77–78

Section 77 deals with other public documents that are proved in special ways, not by ordinary certified copies — Central/State Government Acts, orders and notifications; proceedings of Parliament and the State Legislatures; Presidential and Gubernatorial proclamations and orders; the Acts and proceedings of a foreign legislature; the proceedings of a municipal or local body; and public documents of a foreign country. The section prescribes the particular mode of proof for each.
Section 78 supplies the presumption: when a document purporting to be a certified copy is produced, the court shall presume it to be genuine and shall presume that the officer who signed it held the official character he claims — provided it is substantially in the form and manner the law requires. This presumption is what makes the certified-copy system work: the court trusts the certificate without calling the officer to prove it.

D. A quick orientation (the 6W)

What — the public/private split (s. 74) and the certified-copy mode of proving public documents (ss. 75–76).
Why — originals of public records must stay in official custody; a reliable, cheap copy is needed for courts and citizens.
Who — any person may demand a certified copy; the custodian public officer must supply it (s. 75).
When — whenever the contents of a public document are to be proved.
Where — the office of the public officer having custody; the certified copy is then admissible in any court.
How — obtain a certified copy (s. 75), tender it (s. 76); the court presumes it genuine (s. 78); special documents follow s. 77.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — proving a registered sale deed

Facts. A wants to prove the contents of a sale deed executed in 2010 and registered with the Sub-Registrar. The original is with the buyer, who will not part with it.

Rule. The registered record of the deed is a public document (s. 74(1)); a public document is proved by a certified copy (ss. 75–76), and where the original is a public document only a certified copy is admissible (s. 60(e)); the court presumes the certified copy genuine (s. 78).

Apply. A applies to the Sub-Registrar under s. 75 for a certified copy of the registered deed, pays the fee, and tenders it under s. 76. He need not produce the original or explain the buyer’s refusal, because the registered record is itself a public document.

Conclusion. The certified copy proves the deed’s contents, and the court presumes it genuine under s. 78 — no other secondary evidence is needed or allowed.

Section 74, BSA 2023: “(1) The following documents are public documents — (i) documents forming the acts, or records of the acts of — (A) the sovereign authority; (B) official bodies and tribunals; and (C) public officers, legislative, judicial and executive, of any part of India or of the Commonwealth or of a foreign country; (ii) public records kept in any State or Union territory of private documents. (2) All other documents are private.”

In Simple Terms: Records made by the State and its officers — and official registers of private papers — are “public documents”. Everything else is private. The advantage of a public document is that you prove it with a certified copy, which the court accepts as genuine without the original and without calling the officer.

flowchart TD
    ROOT["Documents (s. 74)"]:::root
    ROOT --> PUB["PUBLIC (s. 74(1))<br/>acts/records of State, officials, tribunals;<br/>public register of private documents"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> PRIV["PRIVATE (s. 74(2))<br/>all other documents"]:::diamond
    PUB --> M1["Proved by CERTIFIED COPY<br/>(ss. 75-76) — original not needed"]:::leaf
    PUB --> M2["Special documents (Acts, Gazette,<br/>legislature) — proved per s. 77"]:::leaf
    M1 --> M3["Court PRESUMES certified copy genuine<br/>(s. 78)"]:::leaf
    PRIV --> M4["Proved in the ordinary way<br/>(primary / secondary evidence)"]:::diamond
    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#000,stroke-width:1px,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;
    classDef diamond fill:#FDECEA,stroke:#B22222,color:#000;
    linkStyle default stroke:#888,stroke-width:1px;

Case Laws

Kalyan Singh vs Chhoti (1990) — a certified copy of a registered sale deed is admissible under s. 74/s. 76, but the certified copy proves only the contents, not the deed’s execution or genuineness, which must still be proved.
State of Bihar vs Radha Krishna Singh (1983) — admissibility of a public document does not by itself prove the truth of its contents; probative value must still be assessed.
Rekha Rana vs Ratnashree Jain (2006) — explained the certified-copy mechanism: a certified copy of a public document may be produced without accounting for the original.

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