CPC Order 8 Rule 1A — Duty of defendant to produce documents upon which relief is claimed or relied upon by him

(1) Where the defendant bases his defence upon a document or relies upon any document in his possession or power, in support of his defence or claim for set-off or counter-claim, he shall enter such document in a list, and shall produce it in Court when the written statement is presented by him and shall, at the same time, deliver the document and a copy thereof, to be filed with the written statement.
(2) Where any such document is not in the possession or power of the defendant, he shall, wherever possible, state in whose possession or power it is. * Subs. by Act 4 of 2016, s. 16 and Sch., for the Proviso, Shall be applicable to commercial disputes of a specified value (w.e.f. 23-10-2015). [(3) A document which ought to be produced in Court by the defendant under this rule, but, is not so produced shall not, without the leave of the Court, be received in evidence on his behalf at the hearing of the suit.]
(4) Nothing in this rule shall apply to documents—
(a) produced for the cross-examination of the plaintiff’s witnesses, or
(b) handed over to a witness merely to refresh his memory.]