Bankers Books Evidence Act, 1891
No: 18 Dated: Oct, 01 1890
THE BANKERS’ BOOKS EVIDENCE ACT, 1891
ACT NO. 18 OF 1891
An Act to amend the Law of Evidence with respect to Bankers’ Books.
WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Law of Evidence with respect to Bankers’ books;
It is hereby enacted as follows:—
1. Title and extent.—(1) This Act may be called the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir;
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,—
(1) “company” means any company as defined in section 3 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), and includes a foreign company within the meaning of section 591 of that Act;
(1A) “corporation” means any body corporate established by any law for the time being in force in India and includes the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and any subsidiary bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (38 of 1959);
(2) “bank” and “banker” mean—
(a) any company or corporation carrying on the business of banking;
(b) any partnership or individual to whose books the provisions of this Act shall have been extended as hereinafter provided;
(c) any post office savings bank or money order office;
(3) “bankers’ books” include ledgers, day-books, cash-books, account-books and all other books used in the ordinary business of a bank;
(4) “legal proceeding” means,—
(i) any proceeding or inquiry in which evidence is or may be given;
(ii) an arbitration; and
(iii) any investigation or inquiry under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), or under any other law for the time being in force for the collection of evidence, conducted by a police officer or by any other person (not being a magistrate) authorised in this behalf by a magistrate or by any law for the time being in force;
(5) “the Court” means the person or persons before whom a legal proceeding is held or taken;
(6) “Judge” means a Judge of a High Court Division;
(7) “trial” means any hearing before the Court at which evidence is taken; and
(8) “certified copy” means a copy of any entry in the books of a bank together with a certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such entry, that such entry is contained in one of the ordinary books of the bank and was made in the usual and ordinary course of business, and that such book is still in the custody of the bank, 1 and where the copy was obtained by a mechanical or other process which in itself ensured the accuracy of the copy, a further certificate to that effect, but where the book from which such copy was prepared has been destroyed in the usual course of the bank’s business after the date on which the copy had been so prepared, a further certificate to that effect, each such certificate being dated and subscribed by the principal accountant or manager of the bank with his name and official title.
3. Power to extend provisions of Act.—The State Government may, from time to time, by notification in the Official Gazette, extend the provisions of this Act to the books of any partnership or individual carrying on the business of bankers within the territories under its administration, and keeping a set of not less than three ordinary account-books, namely, a cashbook, a day-book or journal, and a ledger, and may in like manner rescind any such notification.
4. Mode of proof of entries in bankers’ books.—Subject to the provisions of this Act, a certified copy of any entry in a banker’s book shall in all legal proceedings be received as prima facie evidence of the existence of such entry, and shall be admitted as evidence of the matters, transactions and accounts therein recorded in every case where, and to the same extent as, the original entry itself is now by law admissible, but not further or otherwise.
5. Case in which officer of bank not compellable to produce books.—No officer of a bank shall in any legal proceeding to which the bank is not a party be compellable to produce any banker’s book the contents of which can be proved under this Act, or to appear as a witness to prove the matters, transactions and accounts therein recorded, unless by order of the Court or a Judge made for special cause.