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TMI Blog1976 (1) TMI 186X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n against the Union of India, the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India for recovery of ₹ 6.000.00 as damages for wrongful reduction in rank in the employment of the petitioner in the Supreme Court. The petitioner was reduced in rank and then finally removed from service. Another suit was instituted by the petitioner attacking the aforesaid two orders. I am told that the court of first instance dismissed the said suit, but the lower appellate court held that the removal from service was valid, while the reduction in rank was legally infirm. I am also informed that feeling aggrieved by the said decree, the plaintiff petitioner has instituted a second appeal in this court in which he has challenged the decree uph ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (5) With regard to admission and/or denial of the unsigned copies of the documents, the court upheld the objection of the defendants- respondents that the documents filed must be certified copies from the records of the other suit before the defendants could be called upon to admit and/or deny them and under the circumstances the court gave another opportunity to the plaintiff to file authenticated copies of the documents, but it did not finally dispose of the applications pending the filing of the said documents. (6) Mr. Nijhawan has relied upon the provisions of Order 12 Rules 2 and 3A of the Code in support of his contention and he has urged that the documents, which the opposite party can be called upon to admit and/or deny need not be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hereunder specified, and that the same may be inspected by the defendant (or plaintiff) his pleader or agent, at ....on .....between the hours of......; and the defendant (or the plaintiff) is hereby required, within forty-eight hours from the last-mentioned hour, to admit that such of the said documents as are specified to be originals were respectively written, signed, or executed, they purport respectively to have been; then such as are specified as copies are true copies ; and such documents as are stated to have been served, sent or delivered were so served, sent or delivered, respectively, saving all just exceptions to the admissibility of all such documents as evidence in this suit." A perusal of the provision of law shows tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... admit.) Mr Nijhawan submits that the word 'document' is defined in Section 3 of the Evidence Act in wide terms. It is difficult to appreciate if the definition of document contained in the Evidence Act has any relevance, but I have found that the 'document' is also defined by Section 3 of the General Clauses Act, 10 of 1897, as including 'any matter written, expressed or described upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks, or by more than one of those means which is intended to be used, or which may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter." This definition of document is more or less the same as given in the Evidence Act, but is rather wider as it is inclusive and in any event the definition ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ce Act, only a certified copy of the document and the statute provides that no other kind of secondary evidence would be admissible. The receipt of plain unsigned copy of such document is forbidden by law. The court was, Therefore, fully justified in not acting upon the unsigned plain copies of those documents which are on the judicial file of another court and the plaintiff was, properly asked to produce the relevant certified copies. The plaintiff could also take steps to have the originals produced before the court in accordance with the prescribed procedure. In any event, only when the documents on which the court can legally act and which the plaintiff wishes to adduce in evidence and the production of which is not forbidden have been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the rule of law laid down in Maxwell's Interpretation of Statutes, 10th Edition page 52, was that "the words of statute, when there is doubt about their meaning, are to be understood in the sense in which they best harmonise with the subject of the enactment and the object which the Legislature was in view. Their meaning is found not so much in a strictly grammatical or etymological propriety of language, nor even in its popular use, as in the subject or in the occasion on which they are used, and the subject to be attained." (13) Applying the aforesaid rule to the question raised before me, I am of the view that the documents which the party can upon the opposite party to admit and/or deny must be the proper documents th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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