DailyPost 617
ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE QUESTION
Technology & law cannot be devoid of each other in case of the digital world. From the evasion of the anti-trust law quite a few years back by Microsoft & host of the other companies to the present day Facebook & Cambridge Analytica saga, the tech companies have always have had a better of the law. From the enterprise to the common man is the transition happening at a breath taking pace, going by the GDPR law& the right to privacy in India & the upcoming law on data protection. With most data being in the electronic mode, the question of its legality is the biggest question facing our criminal justice system& mode by which becomes an infallible evidence.
The modalities of coming up with a failsafe systems for legally admissible electronic records inclusive of volatile memory still remains a challenge. The Compass software followed by US judiciary to study the laws and rulings is itself being questioned as the algorithms & the software is not put to third party public domain scrutiny. With the business logic unknown, the authenticity of the analysis of the software also remains in doubt.
The Indian law differentiates between the electronic record and electronic form. Electronic record means data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in electronic form or micro film or computer generated micro fiche. Sec 7 of the IT Act clarifies further, the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent or received.
There have been lots of judgements on the need of validation by an expert of the electronic evidence as per the Sec 65 B of the IT. The present ruling is that it can be used without the certification, under the conditions provided by the judgement. We are still way off from reaching the world standards, though we are moving in that right direction. With more and more of digital evidence being used in conventional crimes as well, the ease of using electronic evidence would be of critical value.
A SETTLED LEGAL POSITION OF ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE WOULD LEAD TO ITS EASIER USAGE.
Sanjay Sahay