After the passage of the Information Technology Act 2000
(ITA-2000), electronic documents have become documents acceptable as evidence
in a court of law.
The amendments made to the Indian Evidence Act along with
the passage of ITA-2000, have laid out the conditions required for
acceptance of electronic documents in the Courts in India. However, as in the
case of several other aspects regarding Cyber Laws, there is a need to develop
acceptable standards for production of Cyber Evidence in Courts which is in
conformity with the law and also takes into account the practical aspects of
dealing with evidence that rests in servers beyond the easy jurisdictional
access of Indian litigants.
naavi.org had announced its intentions to develop such a
service way back in October 2001 which had been kept pending for technical
reasons.
In the recent days we have seen a sudden increase in the
number of reported Cyber Crime cases in India. Even in Chennai itself several
cases have been successfully tracked and the criminals have been apprehended.
It is not however clear whether the crimes can be proved in the Courts of law
if the accused is defended by a cyber law savvy advocate.
naavi.org therefore is pleased to announce that it would
commence providing "Certified Cyber Evidence" to any parties of a Court
dispute in a form that it believes should be acceptable to the courts of law
in India. This service will be modestly priced and the pricing will depend on
the facts of the case and the efforts involved.
The manner in which the evidence will be certified would
differ from case to case and naavi.org does not guarantee that the Court would
not reject it for any reason it deems fit.
Despite this uncertainty, we feel that there is a need for
such service and over a period of time and a few litigations, the system will
become acceptable to Indian Courts with any modifications suggested by them.
On receipt of any enquiry the details of the undertaking
required to be given by the client for certification, the fees payable, the
manner of certification etc would be advised.
Enquiries may be sent to
Naavi by e-mail
with relevant preliminary details.
Naavi
March 5, 2002
