Report No. 163

2.19 Clause 23 of the Amendment Bill.-

By this clause, rules 1 and 2 of Order XIII are sought to be substituted. The amendments are in accord with the provisions contained in proposed Order VII, rule 14 and proposed Order VIII, rule 1A. Indeed, proposed rule 1 of Order XIII expressly contemplates situations where the original documents are not filed but only copies thereof are filed with the plaint, or written statement, a matter referred to by Commission while dealing with amendments in the said Orders.

The obligation created by the clause under consideration is to produce the original before the settlement of the issues. It would be more appropriate if the stage at which originals are to be produced is left to the discretion of the court. It can be done even at the time of trial. The matter should be left to the discretion of the court. It would be for the court to direct the parties to produce the original documents at the appropriate stage. With this clarification, the amendments proposed in Order XIII can be said to be in order.