Section 74

Courts need a reliable way to check whether a document is genuine before relying on it. Documents made or kept by government bodies, courts, and officials are generally considered more trustworthy because they're created under public duty and official scrutiny, so the law lets them be proved more easily (for example, through certified copies) instead of always needing the original or a witness. This provision — carried over largely unchanged from Section 74 of the old Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — draws that line between 'public' and 'private' documents so other evidence rules (like how each type is proved) can apply correctly.

Indian courts, interpreting the identical provision under the 1872 Evidence Act, have held that mere custody by a government office does not automatically make a document 'public' — it must fall within the specific categories listed, such as being a record of an official act or a privately made document that the State is required to keep on file (like registered documents under the Registration Act). Courts have also clarified that documents from foreign public officers are covered, but their treatment for proof purposes may still require additional authentication under other evidentiary rules.

• Myth: Any document kept in a government office becomes a 'public document.'
  Fact: Only documents that are official records of acts by the government, tribunals, or public officers — or private documents that the State is specifically required to keep on record (like registered deeds) — count as public documents under this section.
• Myth: A private document loses its private character forever once it touches a government office.
  Fact: It's the officially kept public record/copy that becomes a public document; the original private document itself remains private in nature.