The Conflict between Testimonial Evidence and Official Document from the Viewpoint of Fiqh and Iranian Law

Nowadays, official documents are considered as one of the most important proofs that are accepted by administrative and legal systems of the world. But in some cases, there are some other signs against official documents such as testimony of witnesses which conflict with the document’s contents. Now, the question is, which of these two –official documents or testimonial evidence- must be given priority in the judgment. Article 1309 of the Iranian Civil Code has explicitly mentioned the submitting of official document. Although this article has been considered contrary to Islamic law by jurists of the guardian council, it still is in the text of the law and can be enforceable. This issue led to different judicial procedures in the same cases. Therefore, it is necessary to review and analyze the basics of each of these two viewpoints and to provide practical procedures for preferring either official document or testimonial evidence. The finding of this study is that, due to the incompatibility article 1309 with fiqh principles and viewpoints of the guardian council jurists, the said article must be corrected. Key Words: Official Document, Testimonial Evidence, Conflict, Fiqh, Iranian Law, Assurance and knowing, Article 1309 of the Civil Code