Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

W hatsapp is an instant text messaging application, as of October 2020 it is used by more than 2 billion users in more than 180 countries. Its use has become so prevalent that it has become a primary mode of communication for many individuals. Many parties now use Whatsapp even for business purposes, such as communicating with clients, sending documents or even negotiating contracts. As a cyber lawyer, one of the questions I get asked frequently is whether Whatsapp messages can be adduced as evidence in court.  Some clients think that because of its “informal” nature, Whatsapp messages would not be admissible as evidence. However, this assumption is inaccurate since there have been many instances where the Indian Courts have allowed Whatsapp messages to be adduced as evidence.   In January 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had observed that WhatsApp messages will have no evidentiary value unless they are certified as per Section 65B of  the Indian Evidence Act (Rake...

Judgement Dowload link A  Judicial Magistrate  in Puri today sentenced a man to six years of imprisonment in a cyber pornography (A revenge Porn) case, stated to be the first such case. Puri Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Shibasis Giri also slapped a Rs-9,000 fine on the convict, Jayanta Kumar Das an alleged RTI activist, A fake profile was created by the accused in the name of the victim woman from Puri Township in a pornographic site, who then had uploaded the woman’s name, address, photo and phone number on a pornographic website in 2012 to take revenge against her husband. After her personal info was posed on the site, the victim started receiving calls from numerous persons enquiring about her interest in paid sex and wife swapping. The husband of the woman, a local journalist, had written about several cases involving the convict. The crime branch had arrested Das on September 18, 2012, following a complaint filed by the victim in July.He was...