The Court shall presume 1 [to be genuine] every document purporting to be a certificate, certified copy or other document, which is by Law declared to be admissible as evidence of any particular fact, and which purports to be duly certified by any officer 2 [of the Central Government or of a State Government, or by any officer 3 [in the State of Jammu and Kashmir] who is duly authorized thereto by the Central Government]:
Provided that such document is substantially in the form and purports to be executed in the manner directed by law in that behalf.
The Court shall also presume that any officer by whom any such document purports to be signed or certified, held, when he signed it, the official character which he claims in such paper.
1Ins. by the A.O. 1948.
2The original words beginning from “in British India” and ending with the words “to be genuine” have been successively amended by the A.O. 1937, the A.O. 1948 and the A.O. 1950 to read as above.
3Subs. by Act 3 of 1951, s. 3 and the Schedule, for “in a Part B State”.