Madhya Pradesh Government has proposed a new Electronic Evidence Rules to make handling of electronic evidence for presentation to the Court easier. The rule is said to have been developed in consultation with MP High Court. It is pending approval and notification by the State.
According to MP Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Shukla, the draft rules have been received by the government and are currently under examination. It is reported that similar initiatives are being pursued in several states following the Centre’s recommendations. If approved, Madhya Pradesh could emerge as the country’s first state to formally implement such a framework.
One of the benefits indicated is that mobile phones need not be submitted by people for presenting evidence. The evidence will be uploaded on an application and will be treated as “Original Evidence”. Upload facility will be provided through E Seva Centers.
It is not clear if with the inclusion of E Seva Centers in the loop, this rule will dilute the integrity of the evidence and enable manipulation. It is also debatable if this should have been done with an amendment to BSA Section 63 instead of the notification of a rule.
In our view there was no need for depositing the Mobile even now since Mobile is only a container of evidence and not the electronic evidence. This distinction has not been appreciated by many and perhaps including MP High Court. What Section 63 requires is a faithful copying by a certifier whose integrity is impeachable. If the certifier makes any false certification, he would be liable for perjury.
Second misconception is that an “Expert” is the “Notified Digital Evidence Examiner”. In our view it is not necessary.
We also have some reservation on the power of the State Government to make an amendment of this type. It could have been better addressed by an amendment of BSA 2023 itself.
Integrity of the APP being developed by NIC and the E Seva Centers would be now part of the E Evidence System. How they will they hold up to pressures of evidence manipulation is another challenge to be addressed.
Let us see how this develops. (Copy of the draft is not available so far)
Refer the article here: at Bhaskarenglish.in
Comments are welcome.
Naavi
Also Refer:
Request for Guidelines (Writ by Sidharth Luthra) ..at Supreme Court
