- Sub-Registrars are strictly prohibited from producing the registers or books of their offices in courts on their own authority. When a Sub-Registrar receives an order or summons direct from a court for the production of registers or books of his office, he should return it with an endorsement that he has no power to produce the registers or books without the authority of the District Registrar, and that if the court requires the registers or books, the order or summons should be addressed direct to the District Registrar. The District Registrar receiving such summons or order may permit the production of original records, but he should ordinarily refuse to do so in the exercise of his discretion under sections 123 and 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. A Government servant who is to attend a court as a witness with official documents should, where permission under section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 has been withheld, be given an order duly signed by the District Registrar in the following form. He should produce the certificate when called upon to give his evidence and should explain that he is not at liberty to produce the registers before the court or to give evidence desired from them. He should however take with him the registers which he has been summoned to produce.OrderSummons from the court of........for the production of.......of registers No..........Volume of 19 relating to the District Registrars/Sub-Registrar's office.(a)I direct..............to appear with the registers mentioned in the summons and to claim privilege for them under section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.(b)I withheld permission to give any evidence desired from the registers for which privilege is claimed under this order.Dated the..........District Registrar(2)If the summons relates to any records deposited in the central office of records under the charge of the Inspector of Registration, the instructions contained in Sub-rule (1) will be followed by him.
