Public document : Certified copy of power of attorney which is registered document on file of Sub-Registrar is a public document : Evidence Act Sec. 74(2).

The suit had been instituted by the petitioner on the
factual premise that as per the power of attorney executed by the respondent
on 29.01.1993, he was permitted to develop the land belonging to the
respondent, having an extent of 1.50 acres and a certified copy of the said
power of attorney was produced along with the plaint. However, the suit was
contested by the respondent on the ground that only an extent of 50% of
property were given as per the said power of attorney and the petitioner with
the connivance of the officials of the Registration Department fraudulently
changed the extent as 1.50 acres instead of the original extent of 50%.
Subsequently, during the course of trial, the petitioner attempted to mark the
certified copy of the power of attorney as a document on his side. The same
was objected to by the respondent mainly on the ground that loss of original
has not been properly accounted in terms of Section 65 of the Indian Evidence
Act.

The document produced by the petitioner was rejected by the
learned District Munsif on the ground that certified copy of power of attorney
cannot be admitted in evidence. The petitioner had contended before the Trial
Court that the original was lost and the same was also mentioned in the plaint
as well as in the proof affidavit and as such, he was entitled to lead
secondary evidence.

The Hon’ble Court observed that the document produced by
the petitioner as document No.1 is found to be a certified copy of the power
of attorney registered as document No.13/1993 on the file of Sub-Registrar.
Admittedly, the document was a registered document and what was produced by
the petitioner was only a certified copy of the said document. Section 74 of
the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 indicates as to what are all the documents which
could be termed as public documents. As per Sub-Section 2 of Section 74,
public records kept (in any State) of private documents are public documents.
Section 76 mandates that every public officer having the custody of the public
document, which any person has a right to inspect, shall give that person on
demand a copy of it on payment of the legal fees therefor, together with a
certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such
document or part thereof, as the case may be, and such certificate shall be
dated and subscribed by such officer with his name and his official title, and
shall be sealed, whenever such officer is authorised by law to make use of
seal; and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies.

As per Section 77, such certified copies may be produced in
proof of the contents of the public documents or parts of the public documents
of which they purport to be copies. Section 79 of the Indian Evidence Act
gives a statutory presumption with respect to the genuineness of certified
copies.

Therefore, it was evident that the certified copy of the
power of attorney produced by the petitioner is a public document within the
meaning of Section 74(2) of the Indian Evidence Act and the same is admissible
in evidence as provided under Section 76 of the Act.

The alleged alteration in the original deed was a matter
for evidence. It would be open to the respondent to summon the office copy of
the document sought to be marked and to take steps to send the same for expert
opinion. It is also possible for the respondent to take steps to prove her
contention that there were alterations made in the document subsequent to the
registration.

[P. K. Pandian vs. Komala, AIR 2009 Madras 51].