Evidence Act · Chapter V · Of documentary evidence

Evidence Act section 82 in the BSA

Evidence Act 82Not carried over

Evidence Act section 82, “Presumption as to document admissible in England without proof of seal or signature”, was not carried into the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which replaced the Evidence Act on 1 July 2024.

What changed

Why there is no BSA section

Not carried into the BSA, which has no presumption for documents admissible in England or Ireland.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Evidence Act, 1872

Section 82 Presumption as to document admissible in England without proof of seal or signature

When any document is produced before any Court, purporting to be a document which, by the law in force for the time being in England or Ireland, would be admissible in proof of any particular in any Court of Justice in England or Ireland, without proof of the seal or stamp or signature authenticating it, or of the judicial or official character claimed by the person by whom it purports to be signed, the Court shall presume that such seal, stamp or signature is genuine, and that the person signing it held, at the time when he signed it, the judicial or official character which he claims, and the document shall be admissible for the same purpose for which it would be admissible in England or Ireland.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BSA repealed the Indian Evidence Act from 1 July 2024 (section 170(1)). Any application, trial, inquiry, investigation, proceeding or appeal pending immediately before that date is dealt with under the Evidence Act as it then stood, as if the BSA had not come into force (section 170(2)).