Section 190 Evidence Act 2011
Section 190 Evidence Act 2011 is titled ‘Evidence as to affairs of State‘. It is under Part XI (WITNESSES) of the Act. It states as follows:
(1) Subject to any directions of the President in any particular case, or of the Governor of a State where the records are in the custody of a State, no one shall be permitted to produce any unpublished official records relating to affairs of State, or to give any evidence derived from such record except with the permission of the officer at the head of the Ministry, Department or Agency concerned who shall give or withhold such permission as he thinks fit:
Provided that the Ministry, Department or Agency concerned shall, on the order of the court, produce to the judge the official record in question or, as the case may be, permit evidence derived from it to be given to the judge alone in chambers and if the judge after careful consideration shall decide that the record or the oral evidence, as the case may be, should be received as evidence in the proceedings, he shall order this to be done in private as provided in section 36(4) of the Constitution.
(2) Any order made under the proviso to subsection (1) of this section may be appealed against by the department concerned or by a party to the case.