Presumption as to documents thirty years old

Reference: The Indian Evidence Act
Section 90

Where any document, purporting or proved to be thirty years old, is produced from any custody which the Court in the particular case considers proper the Court may presume that the signature and every other part of such document, which purports to be in the handwriting of any particular person, is in that person’s handwriting, and, in the case of document executed or attested, that it was duly executed and attested by the persons by whom it purports to be executed and attested.
Explanation – Documents are said to be in proper custody if they are in the place in which, and under the care of the person with whom, they would naturally be; but no custody is improper if it is proved to have had a legitimate origin, or the circumstances of the particular case are such as to render such an origin, probable. This explanation applies also to Section 81.

This Section which has expediency as its object ensures that it does not become virtually impossible to prove handwriting attestation etc. the rules as to proof of private documents are made inapplicable by the provisions of this Section if the document is more than 30 years old. Corresponding provisions govern presumptions as to electronic records which are over 5 years old under Section 90 A.
The Court has discretion in the matter of raising a presumption in favour of a document though. It was held in Govinda Hazra v. Pratap Narain Mukhopadhyaya that ‘because a document purports to be an ancient document and to come from proper custody, it does not, therefore follow that its genuineness is to be assumed’.
The discretion is, however, based on sound judicial principles. In Jesa Lal v. Mussamat Ganga Devi, 1913, it was held that the Court should aliunde be satisfied that there is good ground for accepting it as a true document, and in Prakash Chand v. Hans Raj, 1994, it was held that the document should not look ex facie suspicious.
The presumption does not extend to the contents of the document and the period of 30 years begins not when the document is filed but when it is first tendered as evidence in a proceeding, and, in the case of a will, from the date of the will.