public document

Public documents include documents forming the acts or records of the sovereign authority, of official bodies and tribunals, and of public officers (legislative, judicial and executive) of India or of a foreign country, and public records kept in a State of private documents. Everything else is a private document. Judgments, gazette notifications, FIRs, registered deed records and revenue records are common examples.

The practical point is proof. A public officer having custody must, on demand and payment of fees, give a certified copy, and a certified copy may be produced to prove the contents of the public document without calling the original. A registered sale deed is itself a private document, but the copy in the registration office book is a public record.

Example

The certified copy of the earlier judgment, being a public document, was admitted without calling for the original record.

In Indian law

• s.74 BSA (old s.74 Evidence Act): public documents
• ss.75 and 76 BSA (old ss.76 and 77 Evidence Act): certified copies and their production

See also

certified copy · documentary evidence · secondary evidence · primary evidence

Read more in the study notes

• Documentary evidence: primary and secondary evidence, and electronic and digital records (sections 56 to 63) (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Proof of documents, public and private documents, presumptions as to documents, and exclusion of oral by documentary evidence (sections 64 to 103) (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Constructive notice and the doctrine of indoor management (Company Law)
• Joint Hindu family and coparcenary (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
• Partition and reunion (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
• The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 (Family Law I - Hindu Law)