Sir/Madam,
Being a Junior lawyer i am asking this query.
I happened to appear in one of Metropolitan Magistrate Courts, Mumbai for a 138 Matter under The Negotiable Instruments Act. The matter was kept for Substitution Application of the Bank's Representative ( hereinafter referred to as B.R.), whereby alongwith the application i annexed the Notarised Copy of the Power of Attorney of the B.R and requested the magistrate to verify the original alongwith the true copy and return back the original since the same is required by the B.R. Now the lawyer for the defendent has raised an objection stating that the original power of attorney be submitted to the court's record. Now our B.R states that he cannot give the original poa to the court as per her bank's rules as she requires the same in many more cases and also in various meetings while representing the bank. The court is however adamant to handover the original poa. However i took an adjournment on the pretext that we need to speak with the senior management of the banks and The matter has been scheduled in next week.
My Query is :
1) Is there any section or any caselaw whereby is can suffice the court from handing the original poa
2) Also does Section 8 of The Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891 suffice here in producing only the notarised copy of the poa.
Regards,
Nitin P. Kotian