• Facts judicially noticeable - No fact of which the court will take judicial notice need be proved. (Section 56)

• Facts of which Court must take judicial notice- In all matters of public history, literature, science, art, the Court may resort for its aid to appropriate book or documents of reference. If the Court is called upon by any person to take judicial notice of any fact, it may refuse to do so, unless and until such person produces any such books or documents as it may consider necessary to enable it to do so.(Section 57)

• Facts admitted need not be proved - No fact need be proved in any proceeding which -

  1. The parties thereto or their agents agree to admit at the hearing, or

  2. Which, before the hearing, they agree to admit by any writing under their hands, or

  3. Which by any rule of pleading in force at the time they are deemed to have admitted by their pleadings.(Section 58)

Provided that the Court may, in its discretion, require the facts admitted to be proved otherwise than by such admissions.

Section 59 of the Act says, " All facts, except the contents of documents, may be proved by oral evidence." The principle behind this Section is that the best evidence must always be given, and so this Section states that all facts except the contents of documents may be proved by oral evidence. Documents speak for themselves, and so the contents of documents are to be proved by the production of the documents themselves. Oral evidence, if worthy of credit, is sufficient without documentary evidence to prove a fact or title.

Section 60 of the Act says that oral evidence must, in all cases whatever, be direct; that is to say-

• if it refers to a fact which could be seen, it must be the evidence of a witness who says he saw it;

• If it refers to a fact, which could be heard, it must be the evidence of a witness who says he heard it;

• If it refers to a fact, which could be perceived by any other sense or in any other manner, it must be the evidence of a witness who says he perceived it by that sense or in that manner;

• If it refers to an opinion or to the grounds on which that opinion is held, it must be the evidence of the person who holds that opinion on those grounds:

Provided that the opinions of experts expressed in any treatise commonly offered for sale, and the grounds on which such opinions are held, may be proved by the production of such treatises if the author is dead or cannot be found, or has become incapable of giving evidence, or cannot be called as a witness without an amount of delay or expense which the court regards as unreasonable:

Provided also that, if oral evidence refers to the existence or condition of any material thing other than a document, the court may, if it thinks fit, require the production of such material thing for its inspection.

Documents can be proved by two ways - (Section 61)

• Primary evidence

• Secondary evidence

Section 62 of the Act says that primary evidence means the document itself produced for the inspection of the court.

• Where a document is executed in several parts each part is primary evidence of the document.

• Where a document is executed in counterpart, each counterpart being executed by one or more of the parties only, each counterpart is primary evidence as against the parties executing it.

• Where a number of documents are all made by one uniform process, as in the case of printing, lithography, or photography, each is primary evidence of the contents of the rest; but where they are all copies of a common original, they are not primary evidence of the contents of the original.

Illustration: A person is shown to have been in possession of a number of placards, all printed at one time from one original. Any one of the placards is primary evidence of the contents of any other, but no one of them is primary evidence of the contents of the original.

• A negative becomes admissible in evidence when the person who has taken photograph and had developed into a negative deposes to both the facts.
  [Laxman Vs. Anusuyabai AIR 1976 B 204].

1. Certified copies given under the provisions hereinafter contained;

2. Copies made from the original by mechanical processes which in themselves insure the accuracy of the copy, and copies compared with such copies;

3. Copies made from or compared with the original;

4. Counterparts of documents as against the parties who did not execute them;

5. Oral accounts of the contents of a document given by some person who has himself seen it.

illustration:

1. A photograph of an original is secondary evidence of its contents, though the two have not been compared, if it is proved that the thing photographed was the original.

2. A copy compared with a copy of a letter made by a copying machine is secondary evidence of the contents of the letter, if it is shown that the copy made by the copying machine was made from the original.

3. Neither an oral account of a copy compared with the original, nor an oral account of a photograph or machine-copy of the original, is secondary evidence of the original

4. Secondary Evidence of document can be allowed to be led only when original is proved to have existed but was lost or misplaced. [Filmistan P. Ltd. Vs. Bombay Municipal Corp. AIR 1973 Bombay 66]

5. Documents, which are merely copies of copies, the originals not having been satisfactorily accounted for, are inadmissible in evidence and must be rejected.
   [Mahadeva Royal Vs. Virbhasava Royal (1948) 50 Bom. L R 638]

General rule of law is that primary evidence must be given unless secondary evidence is permitted to be given. (Section 64)

Secondary Evidence may be given of the existence, condition or contents of a document in the following cases: -

1. When the original is shown or appears to be in the possession or power-

   1. Of the person against whom the document is sought to be proved, or

   2. Of any person out of reach of or not subject to the process of the Court, or

   3. Of any person legally bound to produce it,

   4. When after notice as per the Act, such person does not produce it.

2. When the existence, condition or contents of the original have been proved to be admitted in writing by the person against whom it is proved or by his representative in interest;

3. When the original has been destroyed or lost, or when the party offering evidence of its contents cannot, for any other reason not arising from his own default or neglect, produce it in reasonable time;

4. When the original is of such a nature as not to be easily movable;

5. When the original is a public document within the meaning of the Act;

6. When the original is a document of which is certified copy is permitted by this Act, or by any other law in force in India, to be given in evidence;

7. When the originals consist of numerous accounts or other documents, which cannot conveniently be examined in court, and the fact to be proved, is the general result of the whole collection.

   • In case 1,3 and 4, any Secondary Evidence of the contents of the documents is admissible.

   • In case 2, the written admission is admissible.

   • In case 5 and 6, certified copy of the document, but no other kind of secondary evidence, is admissible.

   • In case 7, evidence may be given as to the general result of the documents by any person who has examined them and who is skilled in the examination of such documents

   • Secondary evidence can only be given when the primary evidence or the document itself is admissible. When certain evidence inadmissible no secondary evidence is admissible. Hence, secondary evidence cannot be given of a document when the original is found to be inadmissible.
     [Lal Khan Vs. Allh Ditta AIR 1950 Lahore 154]