Hello experts, need your guidance on the below situation:
A formal witness appeared in a criminal case on behalf of the defence to prove a copy of the letter that was sent to him by the defence & he replied to that letter. Defence had originally submitted the letter to a government agency who routed the letter to the right person & the defence has the receiving copy of the letter stamped by the government agency. Defence submitted this receiving copy in court & called the formal witness to prove the letter & his reply. The witness identified the copy of the letter. The letter copy which was shown to the witness is a receiving copy stamped by the official - receiving copy is a xerox copy of the original letter submitted to the government agency bearing the original stamp of the agency.
At the time of witness examination, the court directed to exhibit the letter (Xerox copy of the original letter & bearing the original stamp of the government agency) & the witness was discharged. However, later at the time of marking the document, the court is saying that its a xerox copy so can't be exhibited. On drawing the attention to the stamp of the government agency, the court says that it would mark the stamp but not the document.
- What's the impact of the court exhibiting the stamp & not the document?
- Is there any ruling / judgement which says that if the witness who has received the letter, verifies the xerox copy (receiving copy bearing govt. stamp), the same can be exhibited ?
Thanks in advance,
- Jaimit
