Emails, messages, call records, CCTV footage, files on a phone or a server: all of these can be evidence in an Indian court. Since 1 July 2024 the law that governs them is the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA), which replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Section 61 of the BSA says that an electronic or digital record cannot be kept out of evidence merely because it is electronic and that, subject to Section 63, it has “the same legal effect, validity and enforceability as other document”. Section 63, which takes the place of the well-known Section 65B of the Evidence Act, lays down when a printout, copy or other computer output is admissible and requires a certificate in the form set out in the Schedule to the Act, in two parts: one filled in by the party and one by an expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This guide explains these rules in the words of the BSA, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Supreme Court’s judgments, from Anvar P.V. (2014) to Pooranmal (2026), with a Hindi summary and answers to common questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Electronic evidence at a glance<\/p>\n
Reviewed and updated by Century Law Firm, Delhi \u2013 October 2026. Statutory references are to the Acts as in force on that date. The Acts are quoted from their texts on India Code and the judgments from the Supreme Court’s own copies; Arjun Panditrao Khotkar (2020), whose own copy the firm could not open, is quoted from later Supreme Court judgments that reproduce it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n