1. This Civil Petition has been filed by the first respondent in Land Acquisition Case No. 34 of 1959 against the order of the Subordinate Judge of Irinjalakuda declining to order the Collector to produce the valuation statement and report made by the Revenue Inspector in the above case. On summons being received the Collector claimed privilege and the question for decision is whether the protection claimed under S.124 of the Evidence Act is legally sustainable.

2. S.124 of the Evidence Act reads:

"No Public Officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence, when he considers that the public interest would suffer by the disclosure."

The requirements of the section are, therefore: (1) that a communication should have been made to a public officer in official confidence; (2) that the officer in question must consider that public interests would suffer by the disclosure of the communication. If these two conditions are satisfied then the public officer to whom the communication was made cannot be compelled to disclose the same. Whether the communication in question was made in official confidence is a matter for the Court to decide and s