I.S. Tiwana, J. - (1.) THIS order disposes of four connected revision petitions Nos. 1491 to 1494 of 1990 as these are directed against different but similar orders passed by the trial. Court.
(2.) VIDE these orders, the claim of the Plaintiff -Petitioner Bank under Section 124 of the Indian Evidence Act claiming privilege from production of certain documents summoned from it at the instance of the Defendant has been declined. For recording this conclusion the Court found : firstly, the person who had made prayer; for claiming privilege was not a public officer; secondly the claim had been made by the Bank and not by the officer from whom the document had been summoned and thirdly, the disclosure or production of the summoned documents was not likely to injure any public interest. Having perused the orders in the light of the grounds taken in these petitions, I find that the above noted conclusions are well founded. A bare reading of Section 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, indicates that privilege can be claimed with regard to documents or communications where (i) the communication has been made to a public officer in official confidence; and (ii) the officer concerned must feel or be satisfied, that public interest would suffer if the disclosures of the communication in question is made. The trial Court has rightly recorded that the Divisional Manager of the Bank from whom the documents had been summoned was neither a public officer nor had the privilege been claimed by him in his official capacity. On the contrary, it was the Plaintiff -Bank, who claimed the protection of Section 124 of the Indian Evidence Act. Further it is difficult to comprehend as to how and why the records from an enquiry filed conducted against the Bank official if disclosed would injure or affect public interest. In this regard, a reference can be made to S.P. Gupta and Ors. v. President of India and Ors. : A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 149, in support of this conclusion of mine. In that case, even the correspondence exchanged between the Law Minister, Government of India. Chief Justice of the High Court, the State Government and the Chief Justice of India and other relevant notings in the files were declined the privilege under Section 124 of the Indian Evidence Act. Therefore, I find no merit in these petitions and the same are dismissed with no order as to costs.;