Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act

Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act has been perhaps the most difficult techno legal concept that was introduced by ITA 2000 (Information Technology Act 2000) which even after 20 years of its existence, is yet to be uniformly understood.

Section 65-B provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the Evidence Act, any information contained in an electronic is deemed to be a document and is admissible in evidence without further proof of the original’s production, provided that the conditions set out in Section 65-B are satisfied. The conditions specified in Section 65-B(2) are

Firstly, the computer output containing the information should have been produced by the computer during the period over which the computer was used regularly to store or process information for the purpose of any activities regularly carried on over that period by the person having lawful control over the use of the computer.

The second requirement is that it must be shown that during the said period the information of the kind contained in the electronic record or of the kind from which the information contained is derived was ‘regularly fed into the computer in the ordinary course of the said activity. A third requirement is that during the material part of the said period, the computer was operating properly and that even if it was not operating properly for some time that break did not affect either the record or the accuracy of its contents.

The fourth requirement is that the information contained in the record should be a reproduction or derived from the information fed into the computer in the ordinary course of the said activity.

Under Section 65-B(4) the certificate which identifies the electronic record containing the statement and describes the manner in which it was produced giving the particulars of the device involved in the production of that record and deals with the conditions mentioned in Section 65-B(2) and is signed by a person occupying a responsible official position in relation to the operation of the relevant device ‘shall be evidence of any matter stated in the certificate’.

Section 65-B(1) states that if any information contained in an electronic record produced from a computer (known as computer output) has been copied onto an optical or magnetic media, then such electronic record that has been copied ‘shall be deemed to be also a document’ subject to conditions set out in Section 65-B(2) being satisfied.

Both in relation to the information as well as the computer in question such document ‘shall be admissible in any proceedings when 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.