Ever since ITA 2000 became a law in India (17th October 2000), discussions are being held on the admissibility of electronic evidence in a Court of law. Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act laid down the procedure by which an electronic document may be considered as “Admissible”.
Naavi.org has clarified this many times and since around 2002 maintains a service “Cyber Evidence Archival Center” providing certified copies of electronic document in print form with certification as explained in Section 65B. Though the evidence produced by CEAC has been presented and accepted in some court proceedings, there used to be continued discussion on the subject.
Now in a recent case, Supreme Court has provided some clarification.
According the report, the Supreme Court stated
” An electronic record by way of secondary evidence shall not be admitted in evidence unless the requirements under Section 65B (of Evidence Act) are satisfied. Thus, in the case of CD, VCD, chip, etc., the same shall be accompanied by the certificate in terms of Section 65B obtained at the time of taking the document, without which, the secondary evidence pertaining to that electronic record, is inadmissible,” said the court in the judgment written by Justice Kurian Joseph.”
Naavi
