Certificate u/s 65B Evidence Act Mandatory To Admit Electronic Evidence : Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court held that the report of a government expert obtained under Section 293 of the CrPC cannot be considered as a substitute for a certificate under Section 65B of the Evidence Act.

The case pertained to a conviction & life sentence imposed on the appellant. A footage from a CCTV camera extracted from a Digital Video Recorder & stored on a DVD, which was presented without a Section 65B certificate.

Citing Anwar v. Basheer (2014) & Arjun Panditrao Khotkar (2020), the court said that electronic records in secondary form must be accompanied by a Section 65B certificate.

Consequently, the court set aside the appellant’s conviction and sentence.