Section 80 BSA 2023: Presumption as to Gazettes, Newspapers and Other Documents
Section 80 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 deals with the Court's statutory presumption regarding the genuineness of specified public and regularly maintained documents, including the Official Gazette, newspapers, journals and documents that a law requires a person to keep.
Text of Section 80
80. Presumption as to Gazettes, newspapers, and other documents. The Court shall presume the genuineness of every document purporting to be the Official Gazette, or to be a newspaper or journal, and of every document purporting to be a document directed by any law to be kept by any person, if such document is kept substantially in the form required by law and is produced from proper custody.
Explanation. For the purposes of this section and section 92, document is said to be in proper custody if it is in the place in which, and looked after by the person with whom such document is required to be kept; but no custody is improper if it is proved to have had a legitimate origin, or if the circumstances of the particular case are such as to render that origin probable.
What Section 80 Means
The section allows the Court to start with a statutory presumption that specified documents are genuine when the conditions stated in the provision are satisfied. It applies to a document purporting to be the Official Gazette, a newspaper or journal, and a document that a law directs a person to keep.
The expression "shall presume" is important. Under Section 2(1)(l) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, when the Act directs that the Court shall presume a fact, the Court must regard that fact as proved unless and until it is disproved. The presumption under Section 80 is therefore rebuttable.
Conditions for the Presumption
- The document must fall within a category covered by Section 80.
- Where the document is one required by law to be kept, it should be kept substantially in the form required by law.
- The document must be produced from proper custody.
- Proper custody includes custody by the person and at the place where the document is required to be kept.
- Custody is not necessarily improper merely because it differs from the ordinary place or custodian, if a legitimate origin is proved or the circumstances make that origin probable.
Meaning of Proper Custody
The Explanation to Section 80 gives the statutory meaning of "proper custody" for Section 80 and Section 92. Ordinarily, a document is in proper custody when it is kept at the place, and by the person, with whom the law requires it to be kept. The Explanation also prevents an overly technical rejection of genuine documents by recognising custody having a legitimate or probably legitimate origin.
Official Gazette, Newspapers and Journals
Section 80 expressly includes documents purporting to be the Official Gazette and newspapers or journals. The statutory presumption concerns the genuineness of the document. The evidentiary relevance and weight of any particular statement appearing in the document must still be considered under the applicable provisions of the BSA and the facts of the case.
Related BSA Provisions
Section 80 appears in the group of provisions dealing with presumptions as to documents. Readers may also refer to Section 78 - Presumption as to genuineness of certified copies, Section 79 - Presumption as to documents produced as record of evidence, etc., and the broader Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 index.
Official Sources
The authoritative statutory text can be checked in the official India Code publication of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. The Ministry of Home Affairs also publishes the new criminal laws and the notification bringing the BSA into force from 1 July 2024.
This page provides general legal information and should be read with the current statutory text, applicable rules and binding judicial decisions.