65B Certificate Format | Certificate u/s 65B Indian evidence act

In my earlier blog-post, I have discussed about the latest judgement by Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, wherein in the event the original device can not be produced before the Learned Court, the party proving the electronic evidence has to give statement u/s 65B of the Indian Evidence Act. We know that in electronic evidence collection, it is not always easy to bring the original device before the learned Court, as in most of the cases the data are collected from internet or virtual world, where the data are stored in various server whose location in many cases is beyond India. Section 65A of Indian Evidence Act says : 

“The contents of electronic records may be proved in accordance with the provisions of section 65B.”

Hence everyone who wants to adduce electronic evidence and where there is no possibilities that the original device can be brought before the Court, Certificate under section 65B is a mandatory one. Hence everyone should know how to write or draft certificate under section 65B of Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Let us see the law as to what should be the content of Certificate under section 65B of Indian Evidence Act which is as follows:

In Anvar P.V. vs. P.K. Basheer and Others (2014) 10 SCC 473), Hon’ble Supreme Court of Indian has observed that under Section 65B(4) of the Evidence Act, if it is desired to give a statement in any proceedings pertaining to an electronic record, it is permissible provided the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) There must be a certificate which identifies the electronic record containing the statement;

(b) The certificate must describe the manner in which the electronic record was produced;

(c) The certificate must furnish the particulars of the device involved in the production of that record;

(d) The certificate must deal with the applicable conditions mentioned under Section 65B (2) of the Evidence Act; and

(e) The certificate must be signed by a person occupying a responsible official position in relation to the operation of the relevant device.

Now the most important, I am sharing some formats of Certificate u/s 65B of Indian Evidence Act for your perusal: