Email as evidence

Hi Karthik,

Plz let me know too, once you get the answer to ur query....i am also in same boat...and looking for answer eagerly

Firstly, sub-section (4) of Section 65B of the Evidence Act shows that the certificate is required “to be signed by a person occupying a responsible official position in relation to the operation of the relevant device or the management of the relevant activities”. This implies that a responsible person who was operating that computer device etc. may be in a position to give such certificate. The section does not make it clear as to what will happen if the device was operated by a private individual himself; perhaps it appears that the said individual himself would then be the “person occupying a responsible official position” in respect of that device. This is what it appears to me, though it is only an opinion. I don’t think there is any authentic ruling on that.

Secondly, sub-section (1) of the said section shows that an electronic record can be “which is printed on a paper, stored, recorded or copied in optical or magnetic media produced by a computer”. Thus, it appears that a print-out of the information may be sufficient. Likewise, a soft-copy stored in any optical or magnetic media (such as CD or DVD) may also be sufficient. Again, this is what is my opinion, though again there does not appear to be any authentic ruling on this aspect.

What is mentioned above is only my personal considered opinion as an advocate of a humble background with a limited knowledge. I hope this opinion is correct, but cannot guarantee, since ultimately the courts have to decide about the correct interpretation of law. But, one thing can definitely be said: the section is not happily worded.

Thanks Ashok Sir for the info i too read the info but it is not much clear for me as the  mail id which i used was from a soffware firm, which is highly confidential and they wont give any certificate of the genunity, only persons who has submitted evidence in the form of hard copy/soft copy or advocates who did this can throw some light on my query..

in the same section i heard like for civil case email authenctication is not needed but for criminal cased email need to be certified by police or someone else :(

As far as i understood from the above discussion, i feel, if email == device which can be conveyed by above 65b statement. It can very well be accepted as evidence. Email can rarely be sent by other individuals, because its password protected. 

Submitting a print out on a piece of paper, i guess that could be ruled out , since photoshopping can produce zillion copies of any kind of email or chat or anything. 

But again, i have this doubt, if its a conversation, then probably just a single email do not make much sense, because one has to go through other previous emails to know what has exactly being conveyed in this email does make some sense. in this case, you might have to prove that the whole conversation is intact without a single message being deleted. 

Having said all the above, law assumes that the email has been sent from your email address, thats it, the owner can very well claim that the email is not sent by him. But he has to prove his argument, in many cases its difficult to prove it because there would be so many mails sent along with aforementioned evidence. 

Hi,Who has to prove this emails ? Receiver or sender ? Please advise...................

in my case i have proof like first my ex sent a mail to my office email address, i replied to her mail and she replied to that same mail thread like wise i have few mails which we both communicated over office email id's on different topics, i feel some emails are useful for me as a proof to be submitted in court as evidence.