Every public officer having the custody of a public document, which any person has a right to inspect, shall give that person, on demand, a copy of it on payment of the legal fees for the copy, together with a certificate written at the foot of the copy that it is a true copy of that document or part of the document, as the case may be, and the certificate shall be dated and subscribed by the officer with his or her name and official title, and shall be sealed whenever the officer is authorised by law to make use of a seal, and the copies so certified shall be called certified copies.

Explanation."Any officer who, by the ordinary course of his or her official duty, is authorised to deliver such copies, shall be deemed to have the custody of those documents within the meaning of this section.