Admissibility of account books under evidence law requires proper books, regular keeping, and proof; loose sheets fail the test.

Entries are admissible under Section 34 of the Indian Evidence Act only when they appear in properly constituted books of account, regularly kept in the course of business and proved by competent evidence. Unbound sheets or records that merely list items, without totals, balances or other accounting process, do not satisfy that standard. A witness's oral reading of entries does not by itself prove them as substantive evidence. On the facts, the papers produced were neither proper account books nor shown to be regularly kept, so reliance on them was erroneous and the finding based on them could not stand.

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Issues: Whether the documents tendered as account books were admissible in evidence under Section 34 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and whether the lower appellate court could rely on them to reverse the first court's finding.

Analysis: Section 34 admits only entries in books of account that are books in the proper sense, are books of account, and are regularly kept in the course of business. Unbound sheets, or records containing mere entries without totals, balances, or any process of reckoning, do not answer that description. Regularity of keeping is a question of fact and, where not admitted, must be proved by competent evidence. Mere reading out of entries by a witness does not constitute proof of the entries as substantive evidence under Section 34. On the facts, the papers produced were neither account books nor shown to have been regularly kept, and their admission in evidence was therefore erroneous.

Conclusion: The documents were not admissible under Section 34, and the lower appellate court's finding based on them could not stand.

Final Conclusion: The appellant succeeded, the adverse finding based on the impugned documents was set aside, and the first court's finding was restored.

Ratio Decidendi: Only entries in properly constituted books of account, regularly kept in the course of business and duly proved as such, are admissible under Section 34; unbound records or mere memoranda of items without accounts are not.

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