Secondary evidence may be admitted on a proper factual foundation for loss of originals, even without a police complaint.

Secondary evidence may be permitted where a party lays a sufficient factual foundation showing that original documents are lost or otherwise unavailable. Here, the originals had been produced with a complaint under the Negotiable Instruments Act and were returned by the Magistrate on an undertaking to produce them at trial; the complainant later asserted that they had been misplaced despite best efforts to trace them. The Court treated that sworn explanation, supported by the surrounding record, as adequate to justify photocopies, and held that the absence of a separate police complaint was not decisive. Permission to file photostat copies was therefore upheld.

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Issues: Whether the complainant had laid a sufficient factual foundation for permission to adduce secondary evidence and file photostat copies of the original documents allegedly misplaced after their return by the Court.

Analysis: The complaint was filed under the Negotiable Instruments Act and the original documents had been produced along with it. The record showed that, after verification, the originals were returned by the Magistrate on an undertaking to produce them at trial. The complainant later filed an application under Section 65(c) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 stating that the originals were misplaced and could not be traced despite best efforts. The application was supported by the authorised signatory. The Court applied the principle that, where loss of originals is pleaded and the surrounding circumstances support that assertion, a sworn assertion or comparable factual foundation may be sufficient to permit secondary evidence, and the absence of a police complaint is not by itself. The impugned order had also relied on the governing principles governing secondary evidence and admissibility of photocopies.

Conclusion: The factual foundation for secondary evidence was held to be sufficient, and permission to file photostat copies was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A party seeking to rely on secondary evidence must lay a factual foundation showing loss or non-availability of the originals, and where that foundation is satisfactorily established from the surrounding record, photocopies may be permitted notwithstanding the absence of a separate police complaint.

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