Digital Evidence: a Game Changer in Litigations
Digital Evidence
The dominance of e-governance in the government, society and industry is also reflecting in the form of electronic evidences , thus becoming part of various litigations among various stakeholders in the court. Electronic evidences, if proved properly , could play a decisive role in the fate of a case; as it was seen in the case of Panama Paper Leak Case, where forgery was established wherein the electronic documents were held to be forged and anti-dated as was created in the Calibri Font even prior to its launch by the Microsoft.
The supremacy & abundance of electronic evidence in cases is shifting the classification of electronic evidence from corroborative evidence to primary evidence and in some of the cases, the only evidence available is digital media like CCTV, Email, SMS, etc. One of the significant advantage of electronic evidence is the reliability of the electronic evidence as compared to the oral evidence. Another important factor is now the omnipresence of electronic monitoring which automatically captures the electronic evidence of the scene of crime, location of accused and important footprints of the crime. Now these electronic gadgets are the silent witnesses to the crime and collect digital trail objectively without any bias and, if properly proved in the court of law, it can become sole basis of conviction or arriving at the truth in any case.
Considering the intrinsic probative value of the electronic evidence, it can be used to prove a fact in a much better and easier way, as compared to the oral evidence and being captured contemporarily in an objective manner without any bias, it inherits reliability and would be difficult to rebut by the opposite party. However, the non collection of such evidence could be fatal to the prosecution case, particularly, when the oral evidence is not direct or cogent , as held in the case of State of UP V’s Tomaso Bruno, where the Supreme Court withdrew an adverse inference against the state in it’s failure to collect and produce the CCTV footage where CCTV cameras were located at the scene of crime and the accused was acquitted.
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