best evidence rule

The best evidence rule requires a party to produce the most reliable evidence the nature of the case allows. Its main application is to documents: the contents of a document must be proved by primary evidence (the original) and only in specified situations by secondary evidence (certified copies, copies made by mechanical process, oral accounts), such as when the original is lost, destroyed or in the opponent's possession after notice.

The same idea appears in the rule that oral evidence must be direct (the witness who saw, heard or perceived the fact) and in the exclusion of oral evidence where the terms of a contract have been reduced to writing. The rule excludes weaker evidence when better exists; it does not demand the best conceivable evidence.

Example

Under the best evidence rule, the plaintiff had to produce the original agreement, and could use the photocopy only after showing that the original was lost.

In Indian law

• Section 57, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (old s.62 Evidence Act): primary evidence
• Section 58, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (old s.63 Evidence Act): secondary evidence
• Section 55, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (old s.60 Evidence Act): oral evidence must be direct

See also

primary evidence · secondary evidence · documentary evidence · hearsay

Read more in the study notes

• Introduction to the law of evidence and its central conceptions (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Admissions: definition, persons whose admissions are relevant, and evidentiary value (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Schedules and review of the working of the Constitution (Constitutional Law II)