CHAPTER V
OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
72. Proof of contents of documents. The contents of documents may be proved either by primary or by
secondary evidence.
73. Primary evidence. "Primary evidence" means the document itself produced for the inspection of the
Court.
Explanation 1.__ Where a document is executed in several parts, each part is primary evidence of the
document.
Where a document is executed in counterpart, each counterpart being executed by one or some of the
parties only, counterpart is primary evidence as against the parties executing it.
Explanation 2.__ Where a number of documents are all made by one uniform process, as in the case of
printing, lithography or photography, each is primary evidence of the contents of the rest; but where they are all
copies of a common original, they are not primary evidence of the contents of the original.
1[Explanation 3.__ A printout or other form of output of an automated information system shall not be
denied the status of primary evidence solely for the reason that it was generated, sent, received or stored in
electronic form if the automated information system was in working order at all material times and, for the
purposes hereof, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it shall be presumed that the automated information
system was in working order at all material times.
Explanation 4.__ A printout or other form of reproduction of an electronic documents, other than a
document mentioned in Explanation 3 above, first generated, sent, received or stored in electronic form, shall
be treated as primary evidence where a security procedure was applied thereto at the time it was generated,
sent, received or stored.]
Illustration
A person is shown to have been in possession of a number of placards, all printed at one time from one
original. Any one of the placards is primary evidence of the contents of any other, but no one of them is
primary evidence of the contents of the original.
74. Secondary evidence. "Secondary evidence" means and includes—
(1) certified copies given under the provisions hereinafter contained ;
(2) copies made from the original by mechanical process which is themselves insure the accuracy of the
copy, and copies compared with such copies ;
(3) copies made from or compared with the original;
(4) counterparts of documents as against the parties who did not execute them ;
(5)��oral accounts of the contents of a document given by some person who has himself seen it.
1 Added by Ord L1 of 2002, s. 5.
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