Secondary evidence of unstamped lease agreements barred by the Stamp Act despite Evidence Act exceptions and section 36.

Secondary evidence of a written agreement to lease is inadmissible where the original instrument is unstamped or insufficiently stamped. Although the Evidence Act allows contents of a document to be proved by secondary evidence in defined situations, the Stamp Act creates an independent bar against admitting or acting on an unstamped instrument unless the original is duly stamped or the deficit duty and penalty are paid under the statutory proviso. Section 36 does not cure this defect for secondary evidence, and prior admission without objection does not extend to such evidence. Alleged suppression of the original by the opposite party does not change the statutory scheme.

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Issues: Whether secondary evidence of a written agreement to lease, when the original instrument was unstamped or insufficiently stamped, was admissible in evidence under the Indian Evidence Act and the Indian Stamp Act.

Analysis: The relevant provisions of the Evidence Act permit contents of a document to be proved by secondary evidence when the conditions for such proof are satisfied, including cases where the original is withheld by the opposite party. The Stamp Act, however, imposes an independent bar: an instrument chargeable with duty cannot be admitted in evidence or acted upon unless duly stamped. That bar is lifted only in the case of the original instrument itself when it is produced and the deficit duty and penalty are paid under the statutory proviso. Section 36 prevents reopening an objection to the admission of the original instrument after it has been admitted without objection, but it does not extend that protection to secondary evidence of the contents of an unstamped or insufficiently stamped document. The fact that the original was allegedly suppressed by the opposite party does not alter the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: Secondary evidence of the agreement to lease was not admissible, and the objection based on insufficiency of stamp could not be overcome by resort to the Evidence Act or by invoking section 36 of the Stamp Act.

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