E governance

Electronic Governance
Arun Verma ©
Assistant Professor of law
1

Legal recognition of electronic records
• Section 4: Legal recognition of electronic records
• Where any law provides that information or any other
matter shall be in writing or in the typewritten or
printed form, then, notwithstanding anything contained
in such law, such requirement shall be deemed to have
been satisfied if such information or matter is
(a) rendered or made available in an electronic form; and
(b) accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent
reference
4

Section 5: Legal recognition of digital
signatures
• Where any law provides that information or any other matter shall
be authenticated by affixing the signature or any document shall
be signed or bear the signature of any person then,
notwithstanding anything contained in such law, such requirement
shall be deemed to have been satisfied, if such information or
matter is authenticated by means of digital signature affixed in
such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government.
• Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, "signed", with its
grammatical variations and cognate expressions, shall, with
reference to a person, mean affixing of his hand written signature
or any mark on any document and the expression "signature" shall
be construed accordingly.
5

Section 6: Use of electronic records and digital
signatures in Government and its agencies
(1) Where any law provides for
(a) the filing of any form, application or any other document with any office, authority, body
or agency owned or controlled by the appropriate Government in a particular manner;
(b) the issue or grant of any license, permit, sanction or approval by whatever name called
in a particular manner;
(c) the receipt or payment of money in a particular manner, then, notwithstanding anything
contained in any other law for the time being in force, such requirement shall be deemed
to have been satisfied if such filing, issue, grant, receipt or payment, as the case may be,
is effected by means of such electronic form as may be prescribed by the appropriate
Government.
(2) The appropriate Government may, for the purposes of sub-section (1), by rules,
prescribe
(a) the manner and format in which such electronic records shall be filed, created or
issued;
(b) the manner or method of payment of any fee or charges for filing, creation or issue any
electronic record under clause (a).
6

Section 6A: Delivery of Services by Service
Provider (Inserted vide ITAA-2008)
• (1) The appropriate Government may, for the purposes of this Chapter
and for efficient delivery of services to the public through electronic
means authorize, by order, any service provider to set up, maintain and
upgrade the computerized facilities and perform such other services as
it may specify, by notification in the Official Gazette.
• Explanation: For the purposes of this section, service provider so
authorized includes any individual, private agency, private company,
partnership firm, sole proprietor form or any such other body or agency
which has been granted permission by the appropriate Government to
offer services through electronic means in accordance with the policy
governing such service sector.
• (2) The appropriate Government may also authorize any service provider
authorized under subsection (1) to collect, retain and appropriate
service charges, as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government
for the purpose of providing such services, from the person availing such
service.
7

Continued…
• (3) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), the appropriate
Government may authorize the service providers to collect, retain
and appropriate service charges under this section
notwithstanding the fact that there is no express provision under
the Act, rule, regulation or notification under which the service is
provided to collect, retain and appropriate e-service charges by
the service providers.
• (4) The appropriate Government shall, by notification in the
Official Gazette, specify the scale of service charges which may
be charged and collected by the service providers under this
section:
• Provided that the appropriate Government may specify different
scale of service charges for different types of services.
8

Section 7: Retention of electronic records.
• (1) Where any law provides that documents, records or information shall be
retained for any specific period, then, that requirement shall be deemed to have
been satisfied if such documents, records or information are retained in the
electronic form, -
• (a) the information contained therein remains accessible so as to be usable for a
subsequent reference;
• (b) the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally
generated, sent or received or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent
accurately the information originally generated, sent or received;
• (c) the details which will facilitate the identification of the origin, destination, date
and time of dispatch or receipt of such electronic record are available in the
electronic record:
• Provided that this clause does not apply to any information which is automatically
generated solely for the purpose of enabling an electronic record to be dispatched
or received.
• (2) Nothing in this section shall apply to any law that expressly provides for the
retention of documents, records or information in the form of electronic records.
Publication of rules. regulation, etc.. in Electronic Gazette.
9

Where in any law for the time being in force, there is a provision for audit of
documents, records or information, that provision shall also be applicable for
audit of documents, records or information processed and maintained in
electronic form (ITAA 2008, Standing Committee Recommendation)
• Section 8: Publication of rule, regulation, etc., in Electronic Gazette.
• Where any law provides that any rule, regulation, order, bye-law, notification or
any other matter shall be published in the Official Gazette, then, such
requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such rule, regulation,
order, bye-law, notification or any other matter is published in the Official
Gazette or Electronic Gazette:
• Provided that where any rule, regulation, order, bye-law, notification or any
other matter is published in the Official Gazette or Electronic Gazette, the date
of publication shall be deemed to be the date of the Gazette which was first
published in any form.
10Section 7A: Audit of Documents etc. in Electronic form

Section 9: Sections 6,7 and 8 not to confer right to
insist document should be accepted in electronic
form.
• Nothing contained in sections 6, 7 and 8 shall confer a
right upon any person to insist that any Ministry or
Department of the Central Government or the State
Government or any authority or body established by or
under any law or controlled or funded by the Central or
State Government should accept, issue, create, retain
and preserve any document in the form of electronic
records or effect any monetary transaction in the
electronic form.
11

Section 10. Power to Make Rules by Central
Government in respect of Electronic Signature
(Modified Vide ITAA 2008)
The Central Government may, for the purposes of this Act, by rules,
prescribe-
(a) the type of Electronic Signature;
(b) the manner and format in which the Electronic Signature shall
be affixed;
(c) the manner or procedure which facilitates identification of the
person affixing the Electronic Signature;
(d) control processes and procedures to ensure adequate integrity,
security and confidentiality of electronic records or payments; and
(e) any other matter which is necessary to give legal effect to
Electronic Signature.
12

Section 10A: Validity of contracts formed through
electronic means (Inserted by ITAA 2008)
• Where in a contract formation, the communication of
proposals, the acceptance of proposals, the revocation
of proposals and acceptances, as the case may be, are
expressed in electronic form or by means of an
electronic record, such contract shall not be deemed to
be unenforceable solely on the ground that such
electronic form or means was used for that purpose.
13

Legal issues in e-commerce:
• Online Identity Theft: Online identity theft id the practice of
pretending to be someone else on the internet. Although it appears to
be harmless but mostly it is related to the crime of stealing someone’s
personal information for his or her own financial gain.
• Phishing: Phishing is stealing a person’s banking information and using
that to order goods or transfer money to another bank account. There is
a framework of legal regulations designed to provide protection as a
consumer in physical or traditional modes means when shopping from a
local shop.
• Copyright Issues: The emergence of new digital technologies, such as
the Internet, is having a significant impact on the copyright and related
rights and the industries such as music, film and software throughout the
world. It has become difficult to protect Intellectual property in E-
Commerce.
14

Continue…
Rights Management Information: RMI act identifies who has done
the work, has the work been registered in the country & if there are
any other owners for the work. For any publication or usage of work
in theatrical issues India mandates that the author/publisher/owner
be mentioned. However, when it comes to electronic rights India
remains very silent on this issue.
Fair Dealing & Licensing: When the content that is accessed on the
internet is stored temporarily on the computer system. This is legal
under the purview of Indian Law. However, if any permanent
ownership of the content is being claimed by the owner of the
computer in which the content gets downloaded temporarily then it
is an offence.
15

Continue….
• Domain Names Issues: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),
manages the Domain Name System (DNS). Problems arise when several
companies having similar names compete over the same domain name.
The key issue for a business is to ensure that the domain name that they
choose do not happen to breach the trade mark rights of anyone else nor
do they copy from any copyright works which belongs to a third party.
• Jurisdiction Issues: Although occasionally discussed interchangeably,
applicable law and choice of forum are different concepts that must
both be addressed while addressing Internet jurisdiction concerns.
Applicable law refers to which country’s law will be applied to a
particular dispute. While some contracts will specify which law governs
should a dispute arise, where such a clause has not been included, it is
left to the courts to determine which law should be applied.
16

Section 7. Retention of electronic records
• (1) Where any law provides that documents, records or information shall be
retained for any specific period, then, that requirement shall be deemed to
have been satisfied if such documents, records or information are retained
in the electronic form, if—
• (a) the information contained therein remains accessible so as to be usable
for a subsequent reference;
• (b) the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally
generated, sent or received or in a format, which can be demonstrated to
represent accurately the information originally generated, sent or received;
• (c) the details which will facilitate the identification of the origin,
destination's date and time of dispatch Provided that this clause does not
apply to any information, which is automatically generated solely for the
purpose of enabling a record to be dispatched or received.
• (2) Nothing in this section shall apply to any law that expressly provides for
the retention of documents, records or information in the form of electronic
records.
17

Section 8. Publication of rule, regulation,
etc., in Electronic Gazette
• Where any law provides that any rule, regulation, order, bye-law,
notification or nay other matter shall be published in the Official
Gazette, then such requirement shall be deemed to have been
satisfied if such rule, regulation, order, bye-law, notification or
any other matter is published in the Official Gazette or Electronic
Gazette:
• Provided that where any rule, regulation, order, by-law,
notification or any other matter is published in the Official
Gazette or Electronic Gazette, the date of publication shall be
deemed to be the date of the Gazette, which was first, published
in any form.
18

National Informatics Centre: Electronic Gazette
• Objectives of the Project :
• To create an Searchable Electronic Gazette database through online
submission of notifications by the stakeholders
• To make available the Gazette and Notifications on the Internet in a
user-friendly interface for use by both the general public and
Government officials
• To reduce the manual effort in publishing of the Gazette by
decentralizing the data input through the departmental interface
• To achieve the objective of RTI Act with regard to proactive
publication of information
• Go Green-Reduce paper usage, Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiency,
reduce pollution, improve carbon credits by savings trees and
conserving water
19

Electronic records and Electronic Evidence
• Main purpose of investigation of any crime is to collect sufficient &
legally admissible evidence to ensure conviction of offenders.
• Requirements of evidence in Cyber Crimes are not different but its
nature has made collection of Evidence a specialised job.
• Evidence Act & rules already in existence were considered not
sufficient; so IT Act, 2000 made extensive changes in Indian Evidence
Act, 1872
• Digital evidence or electronic evidence is any probative information
stored or transmitted in digital form that a party to a court case may
use at trial.
• Before accepting digital evidence a court will determine if the
evidence is relevant, whether it is authentic, if it is hearsay and
whether a copy is acceptable or the original is required.

APPRECIATION OF E-EVIDENCE
E-EVIDENCE IS FOUND IN
• e-mails
• digital photographs
• ATM transaction logs
• word processing documents
• instant message histories
• files saved from accounting programs
• spreadsheets
• internet browser histories
• databases
21

• Cont...
 Contents of computer memory
 Computer backups
 Computer printouts
 Global Positioning System tracks
 Logs from a hotel’s electronic door locks
 Digital video or audio files
Digital Evidence
• >tends to be more voluminous
• >more difficult to destroy
• >easily modified
• >easily duplicated
• >potentially more expressive, and
• >more readily available
22

>Computer forensics is a branch of forensic science pertaining to
legal evidence found in computers and digital storage mediums.
>Computer forensics is also known as digital forensics.
>The goal of computer forensics is to explain the current state of a
digital artifact.
The term digital artifact can include:
>a computer system
>storage medium (hard disk or CD-ROM)
>an electronic document (e.g. an email message or JPEG image) or
>even a sequence of packets moving over a computer network.
23

>Digital Evidence is “information of probative value that is stored or
transmitted in binary form”.
>Evidence is not only limited to that found on computers but may
also extend to include evidence on digital devices such as
telecommunication or electronic multimedia devices.
 The Information Technology Act is based on the United Nations
Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) model Law on
Electronic Commerce.
 Amendments to the Indian Evidence Act 1872, the Indian Penal
Code 1860 and the Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891 provides the
legislative framework for transactions in electronic world.
24

• The definition of 'evidence' has been amended to include
electronic records.
• The definition of 'documentary evidence' has been amended to
include all documents, including electronic records produced for
inspection by the court.
• Section 3 of the Evidence Act, 1872 defines evidence as under:
• "Evidence" - Evidence means and includes:-
• 1)-------------
• 2) all documents including electronic records produced for the
inspection of the court.

INDIAN EVIDENCE ACT (Amended)
3. Evidence - "Evidence" means and includes:
• All documents including electronic records produced in
Court are called documentary evidence.
• “Electronic records” has the same meaning as assigned
in IT Act,2000, i.e.:
image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic
form; or
micro film or computer generated micro fiche;

• 17. Admission defined - An admission is a statement,
oral or documentary or contained in electronic form
which suggests any inference as to any fact in issue or
relevant fact.
• 27. How much of information received from accused
may be proved - When any fact is discovered in
consequence of information received from a person
accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer,
so much of such information, as relates distinctly to the
fact thereby discovered, may be proved.

When oral admission as to contents of electronic
records are relevant:
• 22A. Oral admissions as to the contents of electronic
records are not relevant, unless the genuineness of the
electronic record produced is in question.
• 59. Proof of facts by oral evidence - All facts, except
the contents of documents or electronic records, may be
proved by oral evidence.

• 39. How much evidence to be given when statement
forms part of electronic record:
• When any statement of which evidence is given forms
part of an electronic record, then
• Evidence shall be given of so much and no more of the
electronic record, as the Court considers necessary in
that particular case to the full understanding of the
nature and effect of the statement, and of the
circumstances under which it was made.

Opinion as to digital signature where relevant.
• 47A. When the Court has to form an opinion as to the
digital signature of any person, the opinion of the
Certifying Authority which has issued the Digital
Signature Certificate is a relevant fact.
Proof as to digital signature.
• 67A. Except in the case of a secure digital signature, if
the digital signature of any subscriber is alleged to
have been affixed to an electronic record, the fact
that such digital signature is the digital signature of
the subscriber must be proved.

Proof as to verification of digital signature.
• 73A. In order to ascertain whether a digital signature
is that of the person by whom it purports to have
been affixed, the Court may direct-
• (a) that person or the Controller or the Certifying
Authority to produce the Digital Signature Certificate;
• (b) any other person to apply the public key listed in
the Digital Signature Certificate and verify the digital
signature purported to have been affixed by that
person.

Admissibility of electronic records.
• 65B. (1) 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 shall be deemed to be also a document, if
certain conditions are satisfied.
• It 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.

• 65 B (2) The conditions are as following:
• (a) the computer output was produced during the
period when it was used regularly to store or process
information for the purposes of any activities regularly
carried on by a person having lawful control over 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;

• 65 B (2) …
• (c) throughout the said period, computer was operating
properly or, if not, then 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
reproduced or is derived from such information fed into
the computer in the ordinary course of the said
activities.
• Presumption as to electronic agreements.
• 85A The Court shall presume that every electronic record
purporting to be an agreement containing the digital
signatures of the parties was so concluded by affixing the
digital signature of the parties.

Presumption as to electronic records and digital
signatures:
• 85B. (1) the Court shall presume that the secure
electronic record has not been altered since the specific
point of time to which the secure status relates.
• (2) In proceedings involving secure digital signature, the
Court shall presume that the secure digital signature is
affixed by subscriber with the intention of signing or
approving the electronic record.

Presumption as to electronic messages:
• 88A. The Court may presume that an electronic
message forwarded by the originator through an
electronic mail server to the addressee to whom the
message purports to be addressed corresponds with
the message as fed into his computer for
transmission;
• but the Court shall not make any presumption as to
the person by whom such message was sent.

Presumption as to electronic records five years old.
• 90A. Where any electronic record, purporting or
proved to be five years old, is produced from any
custody which the Court in the particular case
considers proper, the Court may presume that the
digital signature which purports to be the digital
signature of any particular person was so affixed by
him or any person authorised by him in this behalf.

Recent Amendments
• The Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2008
(Bill No.96-F of 2008) was passed by the Lok Sabha on
22-12-2008 and by the Rajya Sabha on 23-12-2008.
• It received His Excellency President’s assent on 5th
February, 2009.
• The date, from which the amendments are to be
applicable, is yet to be notified.

Important Amendments to IT Act
In Section 43, two new offences added:
1. Destroying, deleting or altering information in a computer resource
to diminish its value.
2. Stealing, concealing or destroying any computer source code with
intention to cause damage.
Sec. 66 has been replaced providing that if any of the acts mentioned
in Section 43 was done dishonestly or fraudulently, it is punishable
with 3 Years Imprisonment or Fine of Rs.5.00 Lacs or with both.
A new Sec.66A is added providing for three years imprisonment and
fine for sending:
1. Offensive or menacing information; or
2. False information for causing insult, injury, intimidation, hatred or
ill-will; or
3. E-mail causing annoyance or to deceive or misled recipient about the
origin of that e-mail

• Section 66B makes it an offence to dishonestly receive or
retain any stolen computer resource or communication
device which is punishable with 3 years imprisonment or
fine upto Rs. 1.00 Lac.
• Dishonest use of Electronic Signatures, password or
identification feature invites punishment upto 3 years and
fine upto Rs. 1.00 Lac (Section 66C)
• Impersonation with the help of computer or
communication device will result in 3 years imprisonment
and fine upto Rs.1.00 Lac (Section 66D)
• Violation of privacy by way of sending electronic visual
images of private parts of body is also punishable with 3
years’ imprisonment or fine upto Rs. 1.00 Lac. (Section
66E)

Cyber Terrorism is defined in Section 66F:
• Whoever threatens the unity, integrity, security or
sovereignty of India or strike terror in people by:
1. Denying access to computer resource; or
2. access computer resource without authority; or
3. Introduce any computer contaminant
and causes death or destruction of property; or
• Penetrates restricted computer resources or information
affecting sovereignty, integrity, friendly relations with
foreign states, public order, decency, contempt of court,
defamation or to the advantage of foreign state or group
of persons.
• It is punishable with imprisonment upto life.

• Obscenity has been defined in new Section 67 punishable
with imprisonment for 3 years with fine upto Rs. 5.00 Lacs
for first offence and imprisonment for 5 years with fine upto
Rs. 10.00 Lacs for subsequent offence.
• Section 67A deals with publishing or transmitting sexually
explicit material which is punishable with 5 years
imprisonment & fine upto 10.00 Lacs for first offence and
for subsequent offence, imprisonment upto 7 years with fine
upto 10.00 Lacs.
• Child Pornography has been made a separate offence in
Section 67B punishable with 5 years imprisonment & fine
upto 10.00 Lacs for first offence and for subsequent
offence, imprisonment upto 7 years with fine upto 10.00
Lacs.

• Section 69 has been redrafted enabling Government agencies to
intercept, monitor or decrypt any electronic information with
the help of subscribers, intermediary or person incharge of
computer resources.
• Non-cooperation by any of the above invites imprisonment upto 7
years with fine.
• 69A: Government gets power to issue directions for blocking for
public access of any information through any computer resource.
• An intermediary who fails to comply with directions in this regard
shall be punished with imprisonment upto 7 years with fine.
• 69B: For cyber security, Government may order any intermediary
to allow access to any computer resources and violation results
in imprisonment upto 3 years with fine.

• Sec.72A Punishment for disclosure of information in breach of lawful contract. -Save as
otherwise provided in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, any person
including an intermediary who, while providing services under the terms of lawful
contract, has secured access to any material containing personal information about
another person, with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful
loss or wrongful gain discloses, without the consent of the person concerned, or in
breach of a lawful contract, such material to any other person, shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may
extend to five lakh rupees, or with both.
• Section 77:confiscation, compensation awarded or penalty imposed does not come in
the way of penalty, punishment or compensation under any other Act.
• Compounding of offences with punishment upto 3 years allowed subject to the
conditions that accused has no previous conviction or the offence does not affect the
socio-economic conditions or it was not committed against a child or a woman.
• Sec. 77B prescribes that notwithstanding CrPC:
• Offence punishable with imprisonment of 3 years and above are cognizable.
• Offence punishable with imprisonment upto 3 years are bailable.
• Power to investigate Cyber Crimes has been now vested in Inspectors in place of Dy.S.P.

• Office of Government Examiner of Electronic Evidence is to be
established. (Section 79A)
• Abatement carries same punishment as main act.
• Attempt to commit offence carries half of the punishment.
(Section 84B & 84C)
• Jurisdiction is not bounded by Country’s boundaries if the
target is a computer resource located in India. Section 4(3)
• Any act done anywhere in the world is an offence if the said
act, if committed in India is an offence. Explanation (a) to
Section 4
• Voluntary concealment of existence of a design by encryption
or any other information hiding tool is an offence.
• The words ‘Digital Signatures” have been replaced with
“Electronic signatures”.

Important Amendments to CrPC
• Opinion of Examiner of Electronic Evidence has been
made relevant. (Section 45A)
• Examiner is to be treated as an Expert.
• Examiner is to examined like any other expert from
CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) or other
Labs.
• Words ‘Digital Signature” are to be replaced by
“Electronic Signature”.

• In Amitabh Bagchi Vs. Ena Bagchi (AIR 2005 Cal 11)
sections 65A and 65B of Evidence Act, 1872 were
analyzed.
• The court held that the physical presence of person
in Court may not be required for purpose of adducing
evidence and the same can be done through medium
like video conferencing.
• Sections 65A and 65B provide provisions for evidences
relating to electronic records and admissibility of
electronic records, and that definition of electronic
records includes video conferencing.

• State of Maharashtra v Dr Praful B Desai (AIR 2003 SC 2053)
involved the question whether a witness can be examined by
means of a video conference.
• The Supreme Court observed that video conferencing is an
advancement of science and technology which permits seeing,
hearing and talking with someone who is not physically
present with the same facility and ease as if they were
physically present.
• The legal requirement for the presence of the witness does
not mean actual physical presence.
• The court allowed the examination of a witness through video
conferencing and concluded that there is no reason why the
examination of a witness by video conferencing should not be
an essential part of electronic evidence.

• In Bodala Murali Krishna Vs. Smt. Bodala Prathima (2007
(2) ALD 72) the court held that, “…the amendments carried
to the Evidence Act by introduction of Sections 65-A and 65-
B are in relation to the electronic record. Sections 67-A and
73-A were introduced as regards proof and verification of
digital signatures.
• As regards presumption to be drawn about such records,
Sections 85-A, 85-B, 85-C, 88-A and 90-A were added. These
provisions are referred only to demonstrate that the
emphasis, at present, is to recognize the electronic records
and digital signatures, as admissible pieces of evidence.”

• In Dharambir v Central Bureau of Investigation (148 (2008) DLT
289) , the court arrived at the conclusion that when Section 65B
talks of an electronic record produced by a computer referred to as
the computer output) it would also include a hard disc in which
information was stored or was earlier stored or continues to be
stored.
• It distinguished as there being two levels of an electronic record.
One is the hard disc which once used itself becomes an electronic
record in relation to the information regarding the changes the hard
disc has been subject to and which information is retrievable from
the hard disc by using a software programme.
• The other level of electronic record is the active accessible
information recorded in the hard disc in the form of a text file, or
sound file or a video file etc. Such information that is accessible can
be converted or copied as such to another magnetic or electronic
device like a CD, pen drive etc.
• Even a blank hard disc which contains no information but was once
used for recording information can also be copied by producing a
cloned had or a mirror image.

• In State (NCT of Delhi) v Navjot Sandhu (AIR 2005 SC 3820) ,
there was an appeal against conviction following the attack on
Parliament on December 13 2001.
• This case dealt with the proof and admissibility of mobile
telephone call records.
• While considering the appeal against the accused for attacking
Parliament, a submission was made on behalf of the accused that
no reliance could be placed on the mobile telephone call
records, because the prosecution had failed to produce the
relevant certificate under Section 65B(4) of the Evidence Act.
• The Supreme Court concluded that a cross-examination of the
competent witness acquainted with the functioning of the
computer during the relevant time and the manner in which the
printouts of the call records were taken was sufficient to prove
the call records.

• In Jagjit Singh v State of Haryana the speaker of the
Legislative Assembly of the State of Haryana
disqualified a member for defection. (2006) 11 SCC 1
• When hearing the matter, the Supreme Court
considered the appreciation of digital evidence in the
form of interview transcripts from the Zee News
television channel, the Aaj Tak television channel and
the Haryana News of Punjab Today television channel.

• The court determined that the electronic evidence
placed on record was admissible and upheld the
reliance placed by the speaker on the recorded
interview when reaching the conclusion that the
voices recorded on the CD were those of the persons
taking action.
• The Supreme Court found no infirmity in the speaker's
reliance on the digital evidence and the conclusions
reached by him.
• The comments in this case indicate a trend emerging
in Indian courts: judges are beginning to recognize
and appreciate the importance of digital evidence in
legal proceedings.

• In Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation v. NRI Film
Production Associates (P) Ltd. (AIR 2003 Kant 148) certain
conditions have been laid down for video-recording of evidence:
• 1. Before a witness is examined in terms of the Audio-Video Link,
witness is to file an affidavit or an undertaking duly verified
before a notary or a Judge that the person who is shown as the
witness is the same person as who is going to depose on the
screen. A copy is to be made available to the other side.
(Identification affidavit).
• 2. The person who examines the witness on the screen is also to
file an affidavit/undertaking before examining the witness with a
copy to the other side with regard to identification.
• 3. The witness has to be examined during working hours of Indian
Courts. Oath is to be administered through the media.
• 4. The witness should not plead any inconvenience on account of
time different between India and USA.

• 5. Before examination of the witness, a set of plaint, written statement and
other documents must be sent to the witness so that the witness has
acquaintance with the documents and an acknowledgement is to be filed before
the Court in this regard.
• 6. Learned Judge is to record such remarks as is material regarding the demur
of the witness while on the screen.
• 7. Learned Judge must note the objections raised during recording of witness
and to decide the same at the time of arguments.
• 8. After recording the evidence, the same is to be sent to the witness and his
signature is to be obtained in the presence of a Notary Public and thereafter it
forms part of the record of the suit proceedings.
• 9. The visual is to be recorded and the record would be at both ends. The
witness also is to be alone at the time of visual conference and notary is to
certificate to this effect.
• 10. The learned Judge may also impose such other conditions as are necessary
in a given set of facts.
• 11. The expenses and the arrangements are to be borne by the applicant who
wants this facility.

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