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 Federal or State or of any other part of the Commonwealth or of a foreign country; and

(b) public records kept in Malaysia of private documents.

All documents other than those mentioned in section 74 are private.

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 therefore, together with a certificate, written at the foot of the copy, that it is a true copy of the document or part thereof, as the case may be, and the certificate shall be dated and subscribed by the officer with his name and his official title, and shall be sealed whenever the officer is authorized by law to make use of a seal, and the copies so certified shall be called certified copies.

Copies certified in the manner set out in section 76 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.

(1) The following public documents may be proved as follows:

(a) acts, orders or notifications of the Government of Malaysia or of any State in any of its departments-

(i) by the records of the departments certified by the heads of those departments respectively;

(ii) by a Minister in the case of the Government of Malaysia, and by the Chief Minister, a State Minister (if any), the State Secretary or the Permanent Secretary to the Chief Minister in the case of a State Government; or

(iii) by any document purporting to be printed by the authority of the Government concerned;

(b) the proceedings of Parliament or of any of the federal legislatures that existed in Malaysia before Parliament was constituted or of the legislature of any State-

by the minutes of the body or by the published Acts of Parliament, Ordinances, Enactments or abstracts or by copies purporting to be printed by the authority of the Government concerned;

(c) proclamations, orders or regulations issued by the Crown in the United Kingdom or by the Privy Council or by any Minister or department of the Crown-

by copies or extracts contained in the London Gazette or in the Gazette or in any State Gazette or purporting to be printed by Her Britannic Majesty's Printer;

(d) 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, by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign or by a recognition thereof in some Act, Ordinance or Enactment of Malaysia or of any State;

(e) the proceedings of a municipal body, town board or other local authority in Malaysia-

by a copy of the proceedings certified by the lawful keeper thereof, or by a printed book purporting to be published by the authority of that body;

(f) public documents of any other class in a foreign country-

by the original or by a copy certified by the lawful keeper thereof, with a certificate under the seal of a notary public or of a consular officer of Malaysia that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the lawful 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 part of 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 Malaysia without any proof being given that the copies were so printed.

(3) In this section "Government Printer" means, as respects any part of the Commonwealth, the printer purporting to be the printer authorized to print the Acts, Ordinances or Statutes of the legislature of that territory, or otherwise to be the Government Printer of that territory.

Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 77 and 78, the provisions of sections 90A, 90B and 90C shall apply to a public document.

(1) The court shall presume to be genuine every document purporting to be a certificate, certified copy or other document which is by law declared to be admissible as evidence of any particular fact, and which purports to be duly certified by any officer in Malaysia who is duly authorized thereto:

Provided that the document is substantially in the form and purports to be executed in the manner directed by law in that behalf.

(2) The court shall also presume that any officer by whom any such document purports to be signed or certified held, when he signed it, the official character which he claims in the document.

Whenever any document is produced before any court purporting to be a record or memorandum of the evidence or of any part of the evidence given by a witness in a judicial proceeding or before any officer authorized by law to take such evidence, or to be a statement or confession by any prisoner or accused person, taken in accordance with law and purporting to be signed by any Judge, Sessions Court Judge or Magistrate or by any such officer as aforesaid, the court shall presume that-

(a) the document is genuine;

(b) any statements as to the circumstances under which it was taken, purporting to be made by the person signing it, are true; and

(c) such evidence, statement or confession was duly taken.

The court shall presume the genuineness of every document purporting to be the Gazette, a State Gazette or the London Gazette, or the Government Gazette of any part of the Commonwealth, or to be the Gazette issued by the local Government of any part of the Commonwealth, or to be a newspaper or journal, or to be a copy of a private Act of Parliament printed by Her Britannic Majesty's Printer, and of every document purporting to be a document directed by any law to be kept by any person, if the document is kept substantially in the form required by law and is produced from proper custody.

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 or Northern Ireland would be admissible in proof of any particular in any Court of Justice in England or Northern Ireland, without proof of the seal or stamp or signature authenticating it, or of the judicial or official character claimed by the person by whom it purports to be signed-

(a) the court shall presume that such seal, stamp or signature is genuine, and that the person signing it held at the time when he signed it the judicial or official character which he claims;

(b) the document shall be admissible for the same purpose for which it would be admissible in England or Northern Ireland.