Cyber Law Guru

Cyber Law Guru is meant for education of Netizens and answering all questions on Cyber Law. The answers are based on the best available resources and provided for academic purpose. They are not meant to be legal advise.

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Sl No	Q/A	FAQ-7 : Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act
1	Question	What is Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act?
	Answer	Section 65B was introduced in the Indian Evidence Act 1872 when ITA 2000 was enacted. It defines the method in which an electronic document needs to be certified if it has to be admissible in a Court of Law as evidence.
2	Question	Is Section 65B Certificate mandatory?
	Answer	Yes. This has been mandatory since 17th October 2000 when ITA 2000 was notified.
3	Question	Why Section 65B certification is required?
	Answer	An electronic document is a "Binary Document". It can never be produced in tangible form to the Court. It is always held in a "container" such as a CD or hard disk and can be "Experienced" by a human being only by interpreting the binary code through a hardware, software system. The Judge when he views or hears or sees an electronic document is seeing it through the eyes of the hardware-software and not directly. Hence it is necessary for some other human being to present the electronic document to the Court with a certification that "This is what I saw or heard or seen".
4	Question	What is the format of the Certificate?
	Answer	Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act lays down the format in which the Certificate is to be produced. See www.ceac.in for more details.
5	Question	What is CEAC?
	Answer	CEAC stands for "Cyber Evidence Archival Center" and it is a service run under the guidance of Naavi since around 2002 to provide Section 65B certificates for Electronic Documents. "CEAC Certification" is synonymous with "Section 65B Certification".
6	Question	Is CEAC certificate accepted in Courts?
	Answer	CEAC/Naavi was the first entity to submit a Section 65B certificate to a Court in India in the case of State of Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti. It was admitted and the accused was convicted on the basis of the evidence. At that time a point of objection was raised by the defence if Naavi who is not a Government appointed "Expert" can provide such certificate. The Court stated that there is no requirement that only a Government agency need to submit the certificate. Being only a "Matter of Fact" certification, it is considered that any trusted third party can produce such a certificate.
7	Question	Can Section 65B Certificate be challenged?
	Answer	Yes. Once admitted, it is the prerogative of the defence to challenge any evidence. However, when the certificate is submitted by a trusted third party and cannot be challenged as "Self Serving", the Court may be reluctant to accept the challenge easily. If accepted, the Court may invite a Digital Forensic Examiner accredited under Section 79A of ITA 2008 to assist the Court in satisfying itself about the genuineness of the document. Defence can submit its own Forensic challenge if any.
8	Question	Is it necessary for the Section 65B Certifier to personally depose?
	Answer	No. The Section 65B certificate can be produced by the litigant along with his affidavit for presenting any evidence. However, the defense may ask for personal examination of the certifier and the Court at its discretion may accept or reject such demand.
9	Question	In the Past electronic evidence has been accepted without Section 65B Certification. Will they be rejected?
	Answer	If the case is in trial stage, there is a possibility that the Court may ask for reproduction of electronic evidence with certification. If the case has already been closed, Court may not re-open the judgment solely on this ground. (Refer www.ceac.in for more details)