Section 63 of Evidence Act CAP 80: Oral evidence must be direct
(1) Oral evidence must in all cases be direct evidence.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, “direct evidence” means—
(a) with reference to a fact which could be seen, the evidence of a witness who says he saw it;
(b) with reference to a fact which could be heard, the evidence of a witness who says he heard it;
(c) with reference to a fact which could be perceived by any other sense or in any other manner, the evidence of a witness who says he perceived it by that sense or in that manner;
(d) with reference to an opinion or to the grounds on which that opinion is held, the evidence of the person who holds that opinion or, as the case maybe, who holds it on those grounds:
Provided that the opinion of an expert expressed in any treatise commonly offered for sale, and the grounds on which such opinion is held, may be proved by the production of such treatise if the author is dead or cannot be found, or has become incapable of giving evidence, or cannot be called as a witness without an amount of delay or expense which the court regards as unreasonable.
(3) If oral evidence refers to the existence or condition of any material thing, other than a document, the court may, if it thinks fit, require the production of such material thing for its inspection.
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- Section 64 - Proof of contents of documents
The contents of documents may be proved either by primary or by secondary evidence.
- Section 65 - Primary evidence
(1) Primary evidence means the document itself produced for the inspection of the court.
(2) Where a document is executed in several parts, each part is primary evidence of the document.
(3) Where...
- Section 66 - Secondary evidence
Secondary evidence includes—
(a) certified copies given under the provisions hereinafter contained;
(b) copies made from the original by mechanical processes which in themselves ensure the...
- Section 67 - Proof of documents by primary evidence
Documents must be proved by primary evidence except in the cases hereinafter mentioned.
- Section 68 - Proof of documents by secondary evidence
(1) Secondary evidence may be given of the existence, condition or contents of a document in the following cases—
(a) when the original is shown or appears to be in the possession or power of—...
- Section 69 - Notice to produce a document
Secondary evidence of the contents of the documents referred to in section 68(1)(a) of this Act shall not be given unless the party proposing to give such secondary evidence has previously given to...
- Section 70 - Proof of allegation that persons signed or wrote a document
If a document is alleged to be signed or to have been written wholly or in part by any person, the signature or the handwriting of so much of the document as is alleged to be in that person’s...
- Section 71 - Proof of execution of document required by law to be attested
If a document is required by law to be attested it shall not be used as evidence until one attesting witness at least has been called for the purpose of proving its execution, if there is an attesting...
- Section 72 - Proof where no attesting witness found
Where evidence is required of a document which is required by law to be attested, and none of the attesting witnesses can be found, or where such witness is incapable of giving evidence or cannot be...
- Section 73 - Admission of execution of attested document
The admission of a party to an attested document, of its execution by himself, shall be sufficient proof of its execution as against him though it be a document required by law to be attested.
- Section 74 - Proof where attesting witness denies execution
If the attesting witness denies or does not recollect the execution of a document, its execution may be proved by other evidence.
- Section 75 - Proof of document not required to be attested
An attested document not required by law to be attested may be proved as if it was unattested.
- Section 76 - Comparison of signatures, seals, etc.
(1) In order to ascertain whether a signature, writing or seal is that of the person by whom it purports to have been written or made, any signature, writing or seal, admitted or proved to the...
- Section 77 - Reports by Government analysts and geologists
(1) In criminal proceedings any document purporting to be a report under the hand of a Government analyst, medical practitioner or of any ballistics expert, document examiner or geologist upon any...
- Section 78 - Photographic evidence—admissibility of certificate
(1) In criminal proceedings a certificate in the form in the First Schedule to this Act, given under the hand of an officer appointed by order of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the purpose,...
- Section 79 - Distinction between public and private documents
(1) The following documents are public documents— (a) documents forming the acts or records of the acts— (i) of the sovereign authority; or
(ii) of official bodies and tribunals; or
(iii) of...
- Section 80 - Certified copies of public documents
(1) Every public officer having the custody of a public document which any person has a right to inspect shall give that person on demand a copy of it on payment of the legal fees therefor, together...
- Section 81 - Proof by certified copies
Certified copies of public documents may be produced in proof of the contents of the documents or parts of the documents of which they purport to be copies.
- Section 82 - Proof of certain public documents
Without prejudice to any other mode of proof, prima facie evidence of the following public documents may be given in the manner hereinafter shown, that is to say—
(a) deleted by L.N. 22/1965;...
- Section 83 - Certified documents
(1) The court shall presume to be genuine every document purporting to be a certificate, certified copy or other document which is—
(a) declared by law to be admissible as evidence of any particular...
- Section 84 - Records of evidence
Whenever any document is produced before any court, purporting to be a record or memorandum of any evidence given in a judicial proceeding or before any officer authorized by law to take such...
- Section 85 - Gazette, etc., to be prima facie evidence
The production of a copy of any written law, or of a copy of the Gazette containing any written law or any notice purporting to be made in pursuance of a written law, where such law or notice (as the...
- Section 86 - Gazettes, newspapers and documents produced from proper custody
(1) The court shall presume the genuineness of every document purporting to be—
(a) the London Gazette, the Edinburgh Gazette, or the official Gazette of any country in the Commonwealth;
(b) a...
- Section 87 - Publications generally
Where any publication or part thereof indicates or purports to indicate the name of any person by or on behalf or under the sponsorship of whom, or the place at which or date on which, such...
- Section 88 - Documents admissible in England
When any document is produced before any court, purporting to be a document which, by the law in force for the time being in England, would be admissible in proof of any particular in any Court of...
- Section 89 - Maps or plans
(1) The court shall presume that maps or plans purporting to be made or published by the authority of the Government, or any department of the Government, of any country in the Commonwealth were so...
- Section 90 - Law and judicial reports
The court shall presume the genuineness of every book purporting to be printed or published under the authority of the Government of any country and to contain any of the laws of that country, and of...
- Section 91 - Powers of attorney
The court shall presume that every document purporting to be a power of attorney, and to have been executed before and authenticated by a notary public or commissioner for oaths or any court, judge,...
- Section 92 - Certified copies of foreign judicial records
The court may presume that any document purporting to be a copy of a judgment or judicial record of any country not forming part of the Commonwealth is genuine and accurate, and that such judgment or...
- Section 93 - Books, maps and charts
The court may presume that any book, to which it may refer for information on matters of public or general interest, and that any published map or chart, the statements of which are admissible facts...
- Section 94 - Telegraphic messages
The court may presume that a message forwarded from a telegraph office to the person to whom such message purports to be addressed, corresponds with a message delivered for transmission at the office...
- Section 95 - Presumption as to due execution, etc.
The court shall presume that every document called for and not produced after notice to produce was attested, stamped and executed in the manner required by the law.
- Section 96 - Documents twenty years old
(1) Where any document purporting or proved to be not less than twenty years old is produced from any custody which the court in the particular case considers proper, the court may presume that the...
- Section 97 - Written contracts and grants
(1) When the terms of a contract, or of a grant, or of any other disposition of property, have been reduced to the form of a document, and in all cases in which any matter is required by law to be...
- Section 98 - Evidence of oral agreement
When the terms of any contract or grant or other disposition of property, or any matter required by law to be reduced to the form of a document, have been proved according to section 97 of this Act,...
- Section 99 - Evidence to explain a patent ambiguity
When the language used in a document is on the face of it ambiguous or defective, evidence may not be given of facts which would show its meaning or supply its defects.
- Section 100 - Evidence to show inapplicability
When language used in a document is plain, and it applies accurately to existing facts, evidence may not be given to show that it was not meant to apply to such facts.
- Section 101 - Evidence to explain a latent ambiguity
When language used in a document is plain, but is unmeaning in reference to existing facts, evidence may be given to show that it was used in a peculiar sense.
- Section 102 - Evidence of application to one of several subjects
When the facts are such that the language used in a document might have been meant to apply to any one, and could not have been meant to apply to more than one of several persons or things, evidence...
- Section 103 - Evidence of application to one of several sets of facts
When the language used in a document applies partly to one set of existing facts, and partly to another, but the whole of it does not apply correctly to either, evidence may be given to show to which...
- Section 104 - Evidence to explain special words
Evidence may be given to show the meaning of illegible or not commonly intelligible characters, of foreign, obsolete, technical, local and, provincial expressions, of abbreviations and of words used...
- Section 105 - Evidence of variation given by third parties
Persons who are not parties to a document, or their representatives in interest, may give evidence of any facts tending to show a contemporaneous agreement varying the terms of the document.
- Section 106 - Wills
Nothing in this Part shall affect the law relating to the interpretation and construction of wills or other testamentary dispositions.
- Section 106A - Section 106B to apply in proof of electronic records
The contents of electronic records may be proved in accordance with the provisions of section 106B.
- Section 106B - Admissibility of electronic records
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, any information contained in an electronic record which is printed on paper, stored, recorded or copied on optical or electro-magnetic media...
- Section 106C - Proof as to a electronic signature
Except in the case of a secure signature, if the electronic signature of any subscriber is alleged to have been affixed to an electronic record, then the fact that such an electronic signature is the...
- Section 106D - Proof as to the verification of electronic signature
In order to ascertain whether an electronic signature is that of a person by whom it purports to have been affixed, the court may direct—
(a) that person or the certification service provider to...
- Section 106E - Presumption as to Gazette in electronic form
A court shall take recognizance of every electronic record purporting to be the official Gazette, or purporting to be electronic record directed by any law to be kept by any person, if such electronic...
- Section 106F - Presumption as to electronic agreements
A court shall presume that every electronic record purporting to be an agreement containing the electronic signatures of the parties was concluded by affixing the digital signature of the parties.
- Section 106G - Presumption as to electronic records and electronic signatures
(1) In any proceedings involving a secure electronic record, the court shall presume, unless the contrary is proved, that the secure electronic record has not been altered since the specific point of...