Section 255 in Civil Court Rules of the High Court of Judicature at Patna
255.
(1)A private person, not a party to the suit, producing a document in Court in compliance with a summons, should be required to state in writing the address to which the document is to be returned, if not returned to him personally. If it is desired that the document should be returned to a pleader, a vakalatnama shall be filed alongwith the document.(2)Where the document is not tendered or admitted in evidence it shall be returned at once to the person producing it either personally or by registered post.(3)Where the document is admitted in evidence, a certified copy thereof shall be prepared and placed on the record, if not already there. The original shall then be returned to the person producing it personally or by registered post, or to his pleader unless the genuineness of the document is in controversy, in which case the original shall, unless the court otherwise directs, be returned after the trial is concluded', or, in cases where an appeal lies, after sufficient time has been allowed for appealing, or, if an appeal is preferred, after the determination thereof. The word "appeal" includes a second appeal where a second appeal lies.(4)(a)In the case of voluminous documents, such as account books of collections of zamindari papers, which cannot conveniently be returned by registered post, the person producing them shall, if they are not returned to him at once, be informed in due course by registered letter that he is at liberty to take them back, and that his reasonable travelling expense will be furnished.(b)This procedure shall also be adopted where the person producing the document states in writing at the time of production that the document is of value to him and that he will take it back personally.(5)In cases where the person producing a document has any pleader or mukhtar authorised to take back documents on his behalf the document may be returned under the foregoing rules to such pleader or mukhtar, unless at the time of production the person producing it states in writing that it should be returned to him personally or by registered post.(6)(a)Before a document such as is referred to in sub-rule (1) is called for at the instance of a party to the suit, such party shall deposit a sum sufficient to meet such expenses as are likely to be incurred, including the cost of returning the document by registered post, the cost of preparing a certified copy under sub-rule (3) and in cases under sub-rule (4) the travelling expenses both ways of the person producing the document.(b)In cases under sub-rule (4) the travelling expenses shall be transmitted to the person producing the document alongwith registered letter therein referred to.
