§ SECTION 91 · BSA 2023 · CHAPTER V — DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Presumption as to due execution, etc., of documents not produced

Non-production carries a cost. Where a document is called for and, despite a notice to produce, is not produced, the Court shall presume it was attested, stamped and executed in the manner required by law.

How to read Section 91

Called for, not produced → presumed regular.

The trigger

A document called for and not produced after notice.

The presumption

Attested, stamped and executed as the law requires.

The point

The withholder gains nothing — goes to form, not contents.

The bare Act

The section in its own words — colour-keyed by what each phrase does.

Section 91 · verbatim

The Court shall presume that every document, called for and not produced after notice to produce, was attested, stamped and executed in the manner required by law.

In short: a party often calls on his opponent to produce a document that hurts the opponent’s case — and the opponent simply sits on it. Section 91 makes sure that silence does not pay. Once a document has been called for and, after a notice to produce, withheld, the Court shall presume that it was, in the manner the law requires, attested, stamped and executed. In other words, the withholding party cannot later escape by pleading that the very document he refused to produce was defective in form. The presumption is confined to due execution and formal regularity — it says nothing about whether the contents are true; those are proved separately (typically by secondary evidence under § 60(a)).

→ This carries forward IEA 1872 § 89 — presumption as to due execution of documents not produced.

Glossary

called for

Formally demanded in the proceeding.

notice to produce

The demand under § 64 to bring the original.

not produced

The holder fails to bring it — the trigger for the presumption.

attested

Signed by witnesses as the law requires.

stamped

Bearing the required stamp duty.

executed in the manner required by law

Made with the formalities the law prescribes.

The picture

Refuse to produce it — and it is presumed in order.

The section, part by part

Tap a part — the picture-story tells it first; the word-by-word text and example follow.

The ruleWhy it works this way

the ruleWithhold it, and its regularity is presumed

In one lineWhere a document is called for but, despite a notice to produce, not produced, the Court shall presume it was attested, stamped and executed in the manner required by law.

The Court shall presume that every document, called for and not produced after notice to produce,a doc withheld after noticethe Court shall presume that a document called for, and not produced despite a notice to produce…

was attested, stamped and executed in the manner required by law.→ presumed attested, stamped & executed properly…was attested, stamped and executed in the manner the law requires.

ExampleYou serve a § 64 notice on the opponent to produce a deed; he does not. The Court will presume the deed was duly attested, stamped and executed — he cannot later argue it was defective in form.

✗ Not thisThis presumption of regularity favours the party who sought production. The party who kept it back gains nothing — but it goes to form (attestation / stamp / execution), not to the truth of the document’s contents.

why it works this wayNon-production must not pay

In one lineThe rule is anti-withholding: a party who refuses to produce a document after notice cannot then benefit by claiming it was defective in form — the Court presumes it was regular.

the triggernotice + non-productionthe document was called for and, despite a notice to produce, not produced.

presumed formally regularattested, stamped, executedit is presumed attested, stamped and executed as the law requires.

anti-withholdingno reward for keeping it backthe party who withheld it cannot rely on a supposed formal defect — the presumption cuts against him.

ExampleThe defendant, holding the original agreement, ignores the notice to produce it. He cannot later contend the agreement was unstamped or improperly executed — the Court presumes the opposite against him.

✗ Not thisIt does not prove the document’s contents are true or favourable — only that its form was in order. The party relying on it still proves what it says by secondary evidence (§ 60(a)).

Connected provisions

§ 64

Notice to produce

The notice whose non-compliance triggers this presumption.

§ 60

Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 — Section 91: Presumption as to due execution of documents not produced