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Friday, 13 November 2026 Judgments, law jobs and study notes, written by a practising advocate
Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 · Order XIII: Production, Impounding And Return Of Documents

Order XIII Rule 9 CPC: Return of admitted documents

Bare Act text

9. Return of admitted documents.—(1) Any person, whether a party to the suit or not, desirous of receiving back any documents produced by him in the suit and placed on the record shall, unless the document is impounded under rule 8, be entitled to receive back the same,—

(a) where the suit is one in which an appeal is not allowed, when the suit has been disposed of, and

(b) where the suit is one in which an appeal is allowed, when the Court is satisfied that the time for preferring an appeal has elapsed and that no appeal has been preferred or, if an appeal has been preferred, when the appeal has been disposed of:

[Provided that a document may be returned at any time earlier then that prescribed by this rule if the person applying therefor—

(a) delivers to the proper officer for being substituted for the original,—

(i) in the case of a party to the suit, a certified copy, and

(ii) in the case of any other person, an ordinary copy which has been examined, compared and certified in the manner mentioned in sub-rule (2) of rule 17 of Order VII, and

(b) undertakes to produce the original, if required to do so:]

Provided also that no document shall be returned which, by force of the decree, has become wholly void or useless.

(2) On the return of a document admitted in evidence, a receipt shall be given by the person receiving it.

Amendment notes

  1. Subs. by Act 104 of 1976, s. 63, for the First proviso (w.e.f. 1-2-1977).

Text of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act No. 5 of 1908), First Schedule, as amended, including the changes for commercial disputes made by the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Source: India Code, Government of India.

In simple words

A person, whether a party or not, who produced a document in the suit that is on the record is entitled to receive it back, unless it has been impounded under rule 8. Where no appeal is allowed, this is when the suit is disposed of; where an appeal is allowed, it is when the Court is satisfied that the appeal time has passed with no appeal, or when any appeal has been disposed of. The document may be returned earlier if a certified copy (for a party) or a compared and certified copy (for others) is substituted and the person undertakes to produce the original if required. A document made wholly void or useless by the decree is not returned.

Order XIII: Production, Impounding And Return Of Documents

  1. 1 Original documents to be produced at or before the settlement of issues
  2. 2 Effect of non-production of documents (Repealed)
  3. 3 Rejection of irrelevant or inadmissible documents
  4. 4 Endorsements on documents admitted in evidence
  5. 5 Endorsements on copies of admitted entries in books, accounts and records
  6. 6 Endorsements on documents rejected an inadmissible in evidence
  7. 7 Recording of admitted and return of rejected documents
  8. 8 Court may order any document to be impounded
  9. 9 Return of admitted documents
  10. 10 Court may send for papers from its own records or from other Courts
  11. 11 Provisions as to documents applied to material objects
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