The Code of Civil Procedure 1908 stipulates that the court may, either of its own motion or on the application of any party, order the discovery, inspection, production, impounding and return of documents or other material objects producible as evidence. Further, a party to a suit may serve a notice on the other party to produce documents referenced in the other party's pleadings or affidavits for inspection. Where such an order for inspection is made, and privilege is claimed in respect of the documents sought, the court will be entitled to inspect the documents to decide the validity of the claim of privilege.

Similarly, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 empowers the court or an officer in charge of a police station to issue a summons for the production of documents or any other thing in the power or possession of the person to whom the summons is issued. Privileged communications are not expressly exempted from the scope of this provision, and the dominant view is that privilege is a rule of evidence and becomes relevant only at trial. At trial, the court may be petitioned to exclude it from evidence.

The definition of "court" under the Indian Evidence Act 1872 includes all judges and magistrates, and all persons, except arbitrators, legally authorized to take evidence. As a result, in addition to the regular civil and criminal courts in India, certain tribunals and adjudicating bodies established under statute, such as the National Company Law Tribunal, the Debt Recovery Tribunal, the various fora established under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, etc., have the same power as civil courts under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 to call for disclosure and discovery of documents or other material that may be produced as evidence.