Chambers of Ishaan Garg
Ch. No. 217, Western Wing, District & Sessions Court, Tis Hazari, New Delhi, Delhi 110054
+91 8851742417, +91 8800386163
Most of the letters from the appellant relied upon bear what purport to be his signatures. A few of them are admitted by the appellant. There are also a few letters without signatures. Both the complainant and Jasawalla speak to the signatures on the other letters. The objection of the learned counsel for the appellant is that neither of them has actually seen the appellant write any of the letters nor are they shown to have such intimate acquaintance with his correspondence, as to enable them to speak to the genuineness of these signatures.
Learned trial Judge as well as the learned Judges of the High Court have found that there were sufficient number of admitted or proved letters which might well enable Jasawalla and the complainant to identify the signatures of the appellant in the disputed letters. They also laid stress substantially on the contents of the various letters, in the context of the other letters and telegrams to which they purport to be replies and which form the chain of correspondence as indicating the genuineness of the disputed letters.
Learned counsel objected to this approach on a question of proof. We are, however, unable to see any objection.
The proof of the genuineness of a document is proof of the authorship of the document and is proof of a fact like that of any other fact. The evidence relating thereto may be direct or circumstantial. It may consist of direct evidence of a person who saw the document being written or the signature being affixed.
It may be proof of the handwriting of the contents, or of the signature, by one of the modes provided in Sections 45 and 47 of the Indian Evidence Act.
It may also be proved by internal evidence afforded by the contents of the document. This last mode of proof by the contents may be of considerable value where the disputed document purports to be a link in a chain of correspondence, some links in which are proved to the satisfaction of the court. In such a situation the person who is the recipient of the document, be it either a letter or a telegram, would be in a reasonably good position both with reference to his prior knowledge of the writing or the signature of the alleged sender, limited though it may be, as also his knowledge of the subject matter of the chain of correspondence, to speak to its authorship.
In an appropriate case the court may also be in a position to judge whether the document constitutes a genuine link in the chain of correspondence and thus to determine its authorship.
We are unable, therefore, to say that the approach adopted by the courts below in arriving at the conclusion that the letters are genuine is open to any serious legal objection.
It is true that under s. 88 of the Evidence Act there is a presumption only that the message received by the addressee corresponds with the message delivered for transmission at the office of origin.
There is no presumption as to the person who delivered such a message for transmission. But here again proof of authorship of the message need not be direct and may be circumstantial as has been explained above in the case of letters. The contents of the messages received, in the context of the chain of correspondence may well furnish proof of the authorship of the messages at the dispatching end.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Criminal Appeal No. 200 of 1956
Decided On: 06.09.1957
Mobarik Ali Ahmed Vs. The State of Bombay
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
B. Jagannadhadas, P. Govinda Menon and Syed Jaffer Imam, JJ.
Citation: AIR 1957 SC 857
