CHAPTER V.--OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCECentral
Section 63 of The Indian Evidence Act, 1872
Secondary evidence means and includes --
- (1)certified copies given under the provisions hereinafter contained;
- (2)copies made from the original by mechanical processes which in themselves insure the accuracy of the copy, and copies compared with such copies;
- (3)copies made from or compared with the original;
- (4)counterparts of documents as against the parties who did not execute them;
- (5)oral accounts of the contents of a document given by some person who has himself seen it. Illustrations
- (a)A photograph of an original is secondary evidence of its contents, though the two have not been compared, if it is proved that the thing photographed was the original.
- (b)A copy compared with a copy of a letter made by a copying machine is secondary evidence of the contents of the letter, if it is shown that the copy made by the copying machine was made from the original.
- (c)A copy transcribed from a copy, but afterwards compared with the original, is secondary evidence; but the copy not so compared is not secondary evidence of the original, although the copy from which it was transcribed was compared with the original.
- (d)Neither an oral account of a copy compared with the original, nor an oral account of a photograph or machine-copy of the original, is secondary evidence of the original.