Vidhara

The Indian Evidence Act, 1872

§62Primary evidence

– Primary evidence means the document itself produced for the inspection of the Court. Explanation 1. ––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 some of the parties only, each counterpart is primary evidence as against the parties executing it. Explanation 2. –– 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. 1. Subs. by Act 21 of 2000, s. 92 and the Second Schedule, for “Contents of documents” (w.e.f. 17-10-2000). 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.

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Official text: India Code (official)

Official India Code text: The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872), English PDF (iea_1872.pdf) retrieved via Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot 2021-09-03 of indiacode.nic.in (portal unreachable from ingest network). Extracted via pdftotext 26.07 -bbox and @nexlex/ingest inline parser on 2026-07-15. Repealed by BSA 2023 w.e.f. 2024-07-01. Automated parse; footnotes/amendment history excluded; spot-verified; full clause-level proofread pending. Section 114B, inserted by Chhattisgarh Act 25 of 2015 and published as central law, was removed on 2026-08-02 and is now recorded as a State amendment (D-052/D-053).

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