Whenever it is provided by the Evidence Act that a Court may presume a fact, it may either (i) regard such fact as proved, unless and until it is disproved, or (ii) may call for proof of it.
Meaning of “Court May Presume”:
Whenever the Act lays down that the Court may presume a fact, it has a discretion to presume it as proved, or to call for confirmatory evidence of it. Thus, the Court may presume that a message forwarded from a telegraph office corresponds with the message delivered for transmission at the office (S. 88), or the Court may presume that a certified copy of foreign judicial records is genuine and accurate (S. 86); but in either case, the Court can also call for further evidence.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
Court “shall presume” (Section 4 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872):
Wherever it is laid down by the Act that “the Court shall presume a fact”, it means that the Court must regard such fact as proved, unless and until it is disproved.
Meaning of “Court Shall Presume”:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
When the Act lays down that the Court shall presume a certain fact, the Court has no option in the matter, and it is bound to take the fact as proved, unless the party interested in disproving it produces sufficient evidence for that purpose.
Thus, the Court has to presume the genuineness of every document purporting to be the London Gazette or the Official Gazette (S. 81). Similarly, the Court shall presume the accuracy of maps and plans made by a Government authority (S. 83). Likewise, the Court shall presume that a power-of-attorney purporting to be executed before a proper authority was so executed (S. 85), and so on.