Admissibility of electronic record has been prescribed under. [ Haryana Civil Services (Judicial Branch) Exam, 2010 ]

1. Admissibility of electronic record has been prescribed under.

A. Section 64 of Evidence Act

B. Section 65 of Evidence Act

C. Section 65A of Evidence Act

D. Section 65B of Evidence Act

[ Haryana Civil Services (Judicial Branch) Exam, 2010 ]

 

In the High Court’s opinion: “…. no application is required to be filed by a party seeking permission under Section 65 Indian Evidence Act to lead secondary evidence.” It was held: “merely because an application under Section 65, Indian Evidence Act was filed and allowed, would not ipso facto make secondary evidence admissible, which is otherwise inadmissible.” The law on the subject was explained by the Court thus:

“Section 61 of the Indian Evidence Act lays down that contents of a document may be proved by primary or secondary evidence. Section 63 defines Secondary Evidence. Section 64 provides that documents must be proved by primary evidence, except in cases thereafter mentioned i.e. in Section 65, Section 65 A and Section 65 B.

Section 65, Indian Evidence Act, permits secondary evidence to be led in the contingencies mentioned therein. Section 65 does not contemplate the filing of any application or seeking prior permission of the court for leading secondary evidence.

A party producing secondary evidence before a court has to satisfy the conditions mentioned in Section 65 of the Indian Evidence Act and only when the conditions of Section 65, Indian Evidence Act are satisfied, secondary evidence would be admissible.

Section 65 in Indian Evidence Act 1872

Title: Cases in which secondary evidence relating to documents may be given

Description: Secondary evidence may be given of the existence, condition or contents of a document in the following cases:--

(a) when the original is shown or appears to be in the possession or power-- of the person against whom the document is sought to be proved, of any person out of reach of, or not subject to, the process of the Court, or of any person legally bound to produce it, and when, after the notice mentioned in section 66, such person does not produce it;

(b) when the existence, condition or contents of the original have been proved to be admitted in writing by the person against whom it is proved or by his representative in interest;

(c) when the original has been destroyed or lost, or when the party offering evidence of its contents cannot, for any other reason not arising from his own default or neglect, produce it in reasonable time;

(d) when the original is of such a nature as not to be easily movable;

(e) when the original is a public document within the meaning of section 74;

(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 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. 1. Subs. by Act 3 of 1951, s. 3 and the Schedule, for "the States".

Section 65A in Indian Evidence Act 1872

Title: Special provisions as to evidence relating to electronic record

Description: 1[65A. Special provisions as to evidence relating to electronic record.--The contents of electronic records may be proved in accordance with the provisions of section 65B. 1. Ins. by Act 21 of 2000, s. 92 and the Second Schedule (w.e.f. 17-10-2000).

Section 65B in Indian Evidence Act 1872

Title: Admissibility of electronic records

Description: 

(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 or 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.

(3) Where over any period, the function of storing or processing information for the purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that period as mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (2) was regularly performed by computers, whether—

(a) by a combination of computers operating over that period; or

(b) by different computers operating in succession over that period; or

(c) by different combinations of computers operating in succession over that period; or

(d) in any other manner involving the successive operation over that period, in whatever order, of one or more computers and one or more combinations of computers, all the computers used for that purpose during that period shall be treated for the purposes of this section as constituting a single computer; and references in this section to a computer shall be construed accordingly.

 

 (4) In any proceedings where it is desired to give a statement in evidence by virtue of this section, a certificate doing any of the following things, that is to say, --

(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;

(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 occupying a responsible official position in relation to the operation of the relevant device or the management of the relevant activities (whichever is appropriate) shall be evidence of any matter stated in the certificate; and for the purposes of this subsection it shall be sufficient for a matter to be stated to the best of the knowledge and belief of the person stating it.

(5) For the purposes of this section,

(a) information shall be taken to be supplied to a computer if it is supplied thereto in any appropriate form and whether it is so supplied directly or (with or without human intervention) by means of any appropriate equipment; --

(b) whether in the course of activities carried on by any official, information is supplied with a view to its being stored or processed for the purposes of those activities by a computer operated otherwise than in the course of those activities, that information, if duly supplied to that computer, shall be taken to be supplied to it in the course of those activities;

(c) a computer output shall be taken to have been produced by a computer whether it was produced by it directly or (with or without human intervention) by means of any appropriate equipment.

Explanation. -- For the purposes of this section any reference to information being derived from other information shall be a reference to its being derived therefrom by calculation, comparison or any other process.

 

 

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