Whenever an electronic document is to be presented as evidence in a Cour of law, the ITA 2000 expected a certificate to be produced about the reliability of the document for admission purpose. Earlier it was through Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act.
Naavi was the first person in India to produce such a certificate in a court case starting with the Stte of Tamilnadu vs Suhaskatti case in 2004. Since then more than 125 such certificates have been produced by Naavi in different courts. While Naavi has stopped providing such certificates now due to the inability to attend court hearings to verify the certificates, there are other associates who have been developed for the purpose in Bangalore.
After the replacement of Indian Evidence Act with Bharatiya Sakshi Adhiniyam (BSA), the new section related to certification is Secion 63.
The MHA made some changes in the Section 65B certification requirements in the process.
Now a PIL has been filed in Chennai by Sri S.Balu, former Additional SP, on behalf of Cyber Society of India. Mr Balu who was in charge of the Chennai Cyber Crime Police Station and has worked on many Cyber Crime cases along with Naavi. The petition has been filed at the Madras High Court as a writ petition WP/0047513/2025 in the Court of Honourable Chief Justice G.Arul Murugan. It will be taken up along with WP37423,27426,27880/2024 on a future date. (Not announced).
The petition has prayed for amendment to Section 63(4)(c) citing impracticality of certain provisions of the Section.
The respose of the Court would be interesting and we shall follow the developments here.
Section 63(4) of BSA is reproduced here for reference
In any proceeding where it is desired to give a statement in evidence by virtue of this section, a certificate doing any of the following things shall be submitted along with the electronic record at each instance where it is being submitted for admission, namely:-
(a) identifying the electronic record containing the statement and describing the manner in which it was produced;
(b) giving such particulars of any device involved in the production of that electronic record as may be appropriate for the purpose of showing that the electronic record was produced by a computer or a communication device referred to in clauses (a) to (e) of sub-section (3);
(c) dealing with any of the matters to which the conditions mentioned in sub-section (2) relate, and
purporting to be signed by a person in charge of the computer or communication device or the management of the relevant activities (whichever is appropriate) and
an expert shall be evidence of any matter stated in the certificate; and
for the purposes of this sub-section it shall be sufficient for a matter to be stated to the best of the knowledge and belief of the person stating it in the certificate specified in the Schedule.
Naavi
Refer: Earlier article Section 63 of Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam
