On 22/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 22/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 22/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 01/08/2012.
Public documents
76. The following documents are public documents:
(a)
documents forming the acts or records of the acts of —
(i)
the sovereign authority;
(ii)
official bodies and tribunals; and
(iii)
public officers, legislative, judicial and executive, whether of Singapore or of any part of the Commonwealth or of a foreign country;
(b)
public records kept in Singapore of private documents.
78.
—(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 with a certificate, written at the foot of such copy, that it is a true copy of such document or part thereof, as the case may be.
(2) A certificate under subsection (1) shall be dated and subscribed by such officer with his name and his official title, and shall be sealed whenever such officer is authorised by law to make use of a seal, and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies.
Explanation—Any officer who by the ordinary course of official duty is authorised to deliver such copies shall be deemed to have the custody of such documents within the meaning of this section.
79. Such certified copies may be produced in proof of the contents of the public documents or parts of the public documents of which they purport to be copies.
80.
—(1) The following public documents may be proved as follows:
(a)
the Acts, orders or notifications of the Government in any of its departments —
by the records of the departments certified by the heads of those departments or by a Minister or by any document purporting to be printed by the authority of the Government;
(b)
the proceedings of Parliament —
by the minutes of Parliament or by published Acts or abstracts or by copies purporting to be printed by the authority of the Government;
(c)
the Acts, orders or notifications of the Government of Malaysia or the proceedings of the Parliament of Malaysia —
by copies or extracts contained in the Government Gazette of Malaysia or by the recognition thereof in any Act or Ordinance of Malaysia or any State thereof;
(d)
proclamations, orders or regulations issued by Her Majesty or by the Privy Council or by any department of Her Majesty’s Government —
by copies or extracts contained in the London Gazette or the Gazette;
(e)
the Acts of the Executive or the proceedings of the legislature of a foreign country —
by journals published by their authority or commonly received in that country as such, or by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign, or by a recognition thereof in some public Act of Singapore;
(f)
the proceedings of a municipal body, town board or other local authority in Malaysia —
by a copy of such proceedings certified by the legal keeper thereof, or by a printed book purporting to be published by the authority of such body;
(g)
public documents of any other class in a foreign country —
by the original or by a copy certified by the legal keeper thereof, with a certificate under the seal of a notary public or of a consular officer of Singapore that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original and upon proof of the character of the document according to the law of the foreign country.
(2) Copies of Acts, Ordinances and Statutes passed by the legislature of any territory in the Commonwealth and of orders, regulations and other instruments issued or made under the authority of any such Act, Ordinance or Statute, if purporting to be printed by the Government Printer, shall be received in evidence by all courts in Singapore without any proof being given that the copies were so printed.
(3) In this section, “Government Printer” means, as respects any territory in the Commonwealth, the printer purporting to be the printer authorised to print the Acts, Ordinances or Statutes of the legislature of that territory, or otherwise to be the Government Printer of that territory.
80A.
—(1) A print, whether enlarged or not, purporting to be made from a film of any document in the possession of the Government or any statutory body specified in the Schedule may be produced in proof of the contents of the document or such part of the document to which the print purports to be a copy upon proof that —
(a)
while the document was in the custody or control of the Government or specified statutory body the film was taken in order to keep a permanent record thereof; and
(b)
the document photographed —
(i)
was subsequently destroyed, whether deliberately or otherwise;
(ii)
was so damaged as to be wholly or partly indecipherable;
(iii)
was lost; or
(iv)
had passed out of the custody or control of the Government or specified statutory body.
(2) Proof —
(a)
that a print is made from a film of a document in the possession of the Government or a specified statutory body; and
(b)
of compliance with the conditions in subsection (1),
may be given in respect of any document or groups of documents by a public officer or by an employee of the specified statutory body having custody or control of the film, orally or by a certificate purporting to be signed by such public officer or employee.
(3) A certificate under subsection (2) shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings before any court on its production without further proof.
(4) On the production of a certificate under subsection (3), the court before which it is produced shall, until the contrary is proved, presume —
(a)
that the facts stated in the certificate relating to the print and the compliance with the conditions in subsection (1) are true; and
(b)
that the certificate purporting to be signed by a public officer or an employee of a specified statutory body has been signed by him.
(5) In this section —
“film” includes a photographic plate, microfilm and photostatic negative;
“specified statutory body” means a statutory body specified in the Schedule.
(6) The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, amend the Schedule.