Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

Certificate Under Section 65B(4) Evidence Act Is Compulsory for Admissibility of Electronic Evidence: Three Judge Bench of SC - 14 July 2020 Case Law :   Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal,  2020 SCC OnLine SC 571   , decided on 14.07.2020 The Indian Supreme Court has held in the above case that the certificate required under Section 65B(4) is a condition precedent to the admissibility of evidence by way of an electronic record. The bench headed by Justice RF Nariman further held that, in a fact-circumstance where the requisite certificate has been applied for from the person or the authority concerned, and the person or authority either refuses to give such certificate or does not reply to such demand, the party asking for such certificate can apply to the Court for its production under the provisions aforementioned of the Evidence Act, CPC or CrPC. The bench has also clarified that the required certificate under Section 65B(4) is unnecessary if the o...

CCTV Footage- Primary Evidence-  CCTV footage directly & immediately stored in hard drive of computer is original media, self generated & created without human intervention- Not secondary evidence & does not require certification u/s 65B of Evidence Act. Kishan Tripathi v. State, Crl.A.108/13, 12.2.16 DHC -—-–—–-—––—-–— : Procedure to be followed by Magistrate when CCTV footage and video recordings is produced by police at the time of filing of chargesheet?            During the hearing of the case, we noticed that the trial Court had not played the DVR (MO-2) and seen the CCTV footages in the presence of the accused. In this regard we propose to dispel misgivings, if any, in the mind of trial Judges about their power to view such evidences. There will be instances where, by the time the case comes up for trial in one court, the electronic record would have had a natural death for want of proper storage facilities in the Court property room...