Certificate under 65b indian evidence act

65B. Admissibility of electronic records:

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, any information contained in an electronic record which is printed on a paper, stored, recorded

or copied in optical or magnetic media produced by a computer (hereinafter referred to as the computer output) shall be deemed to be also a

document, if the conditions mentioned in this section are satisfied in relation to the information and computer in question and shall be admissible in

any proceedings, without further proof or production of the original, as evidence of any contents of the original or of any fact stated therein of

which direct evidence would be admissible.

(2) The conditions referred to in sub-section (1) in respect of a computer output shall be the following, namely: -

(a) the computer output containing the information was produced by the computer during the period over which the computer was used

regularly to store or process information for the purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that period by the person having lawful

control over the use of the computer;

(b) during the said period, information of the kind contained in the electronic record or of the kind from which the information so contained is

derived was regularly fed into the computer in the ordinary course of the said activities;

(c) throughout the material part of the said period, the computer was operating properly or, if not, then in respect of any period in which it

was not operating properly or was out of operation during that part of the period, was not such as to affect the electronic record or the

accuracy of its contents; and

(d) the information contained in the electronic record reproduces or is derived from such information fed into the computer in the ordinary

course of the said activities.

Respected  query holder

Section 65 b of the evidence act was introduced by way of amendment by the constitution after realizing that majority of the evidence produced in the court is computer generated as well as electronic.Therefore there has to be a certification under section 65 b of the indian evidence act to show that the evidence is genuine,

The procedure is very simple. Whosoever claims that the computer generated evidence was produced from his computer shall merely have to certify on the document that the relevant record in question is genuine and has been produced from his electronic device. After that he has to sign it.This statement shall be titled as ceritifcate under secction 65 b of the evidence act.

This step is merely the certification required. You shall find such certification in all police chargesheets, as they themselves use a lot of computer generated information.

65B Indian Evidence Act

65. Cases in which secondary evidence relating to documents may be given. Secondary evidence may be given of the existence, condition or contents of a document in the following cases:--

(f) when the original is a document of which a certified copy is permitted by this Act, or by any other law in force in 1[ India] to be given in evidence;

(g) when the originals consist of numerous accounts or other documents which cannot conveniently be examined in Court and the fact to be proved is the general result of the whole collection. In cases (a), (c) and (d), any secondary evidence of the contents of the document is admissible. In case (b), the written admission is admissible. In case (e) or (f), a certified copy of the document, but no other kind of secondary evidence, is admissible. In case (g), evidence may be given as to the general result of the documents by any person who has examined them, and who is skilled in the examination of such documents.

Dear Friend

I agree with the aforesaid opinion on your query. To add to it, in my opinion the learned Judge should not have rejected your plaint for want of Certificate u/s 65. He should have given you opportunity to furnish the same in stipulated time. 

Regards

VIRAJ KADAM

Advocate

Supreme Court of India

virajkadam@gmail.com

Dear Sir,

You(Receiver of e-mail,witness/complainanat/accused/whosoever) just need to tender an affidavit in the court under the provision of Section 65B of Indian Evidence act with regard to electornic evidence and it's veracity.

Adv.Pradee Khatana

9871765000

Format of Certificate u/s 65 B of Evidence Act - 

IN THE CITY CIVIL COURT AT BOMBAY

ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

IN

C.C. SUIT NO. 46xx OF 2009

M/sXXXX                                                                            …….  Plaintiff                                                    

v/s                                                    

xxxx  & Anr                                                                         ……. Defendants                                     

CERTIFICATE

I XXXXXX Advocate by profession, named as defendant , am appearing in person herein, do hereby certify that –:

1. Hereby produced a/w accompanying affidavit are the true hard copies of the emails & whatsapp messenger service records which represent the communications between the parties as elaborated in the accompanying affidavit. The said emails are annexed along with affidavit at pages 1 to 9. I crave leave to refer to and rely upon typed/clear copies of the same at the time of hearing, if necessary.
2.  I further confirm that the contents of the hard copies of the electronic records are identical to the emails exchanged through the computer terminals & mobile phone operated by me in its normal course & primary copies are retained in its original form in my computer and mobile phone sans any distortion whatsoever, in its accuracy of contents as retained in its original form.

Dated this…………………. Day of ………….2009

(Signature)

Not withstanding some Section 65B certificates having been produced and accepted by different Courts, most of the time the certificate produced is not tenable under Section 65B and easily challengeable. Kindly go through several articles that I have published on this at www.ceac.in.

I was the first person in India to have produced such a certificate way back in 2004 in the Suhas Katti case (First case in which conviction happenned under iTA 2000). Since then I have been producing such certificates in a number of cases involving e-mails, web pages, computers etc.

I would like advocates to kindly avoid certifying the documents themselves since this will not only be a sef serving evidence, it will also indirectly make the advocate take the role of a witness in his own case.

If the evidence is critical, it is better to go for a trusted third party for certification. Again certification is difficult in respect of documents already printed out. This is not like the notarization where an existing document can be stamped and signed off. I welcome any queries on this matter. 

Naavi of Naavi.org