Nitish Banka

    • How you can prove electronic evidence in court in 498A cases?

    Generally in 498 A cases you will get an opportunity to lead defense evidence.

    Sometime in court during the cross examination of the wife she always says that she or their relatives have never threatened to implicate husband in the false evidence.

    Now in that case if there is a positive proof of such threats which generally in the form of call recordings then they can be proved in court of law

    Procedure to prove recordings in court

    As per the the Judgement of RM Malkani v. State of Maharashtra[4]. In this case, the prosecution case was based solely on the tape recorded conversation, which clearly proved the appellant’s intention to obtain a bribe. Tape recordings are also admissible evidence in court of law

    The situation regarding the admissibility of the tape recordings as evidence was finally made clear by the Supreme Court in the case of Ram Singh v. Colonel Ram Singh. The apex court in this case laid down following principles regarding admissibility of such recordings:

    1. The voice of the person, against whom such recording is being produced as evidence, must be duly identified by the person who is producing such recording as evidence.
    2. The accuracy of the tape recorded statement has to be proved by the maker of the record by satisfactory evidence, either direct or circumstantial.
    3. Every possibility of tampering with either whole or any part of the tape-recorded statement must be ruled out; otherwise, it may render the said statement out of context and, therefore,
    4. The statement must be relevant according to the rules of the Indian Evidence Act.
    5. The recorded cassette must be carefully sealed and kept in safe or official custody.
    6. The voice of the person should be clearly audible and not lost or distorted by other sounds or disturbances.
    Image result for evidence electronic

    The evidence produced such as electronic evidence from the phone recording have to undergo 3 important steps.

    1. Relevancy-the evidence of mobile phone recording must pertains to facts in issue. i.e if the trial is of 498A then the defence must foocus on provinmg that the case is false any other matrimonial issue is dis credited.
    2. Reliability- That the court can rely on such a piece of evidence for this a certificate under 65B of the Evidence Act must be accompanied with the evidence it is the person who can take the ownership of the evidence.
    3. Authenticity- This can be proved by producing un altered original evidence. Which can also be examined by an expert.