What is a Section 63 certificate under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam?

A Section 63 certificate is the document that makes an electronic record usable in an Indian court. Under s. 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (BSA), which came into force on 1 July 2024, computer output can be admitted as a document without producing the original device, provided statutory conditions are met and a certificate in the prescribed form accompanies the record.

The provision replaced s. 65B of the Indian Evidence Act 1872. Emails, server logs, chat exports, accounting system extracts and phone data all fall within the BSA definition of "document" in s. 2(1)(d), which expressly includes electronic and digital records.

What does Section 63 actually require?

Section 63 has four working parts:

• s. 63(1) deems computer output (printed, stored, recorded or copied) produced by a computer or communication device to be a document, admissible without the original.
• s. 63(2) sets the conditions: the device was regularly used, information was regularly fed in during the ordinary course of activities, the device was operating properly, and the output faithfully reproduces the information.
• s. 63(3) treats combinations of devices, networks, computer resources and intermediaries used over the relevant period as a single device.
• s. 63(4) requires a certificate each time the record is submitted. It must identify the record, give particulars of the device and address the s. 63(2) conditions. It is signed by the person in charge of the device or the relevant activities and by an expert.

What is in Part A and Part B of the Schedule?

The BSA Schedule prescribes the certificate form. Part A is filled in by the party producing the record. Part B is filled in by the expert. Both parts record the hash value of the record, using SHA1, SHA256, MD5 or another legally acceptable standard, and a hash report is attached with the date, time (IST) and place.

This is the most practical change from s. 65B. A certificate is now tied to a specific, mathematically verifiable copy of the data, which means the way the data was collected matters as much as the paperwork.

How did the case law on Section 65B shape the requirement?

The Supreme Court held in Anvar P.V. v. P.K. Basheer (2014) that electronic records offered as secondary evidence must be proved through the s. 65B procedure, including the certificate. In Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal (14 July 2020), a three-judge bench confirmed that the certificate is a condition precedent and that oral evidence cannot substitute for it.

Because s. 63 tracks s. 65B with additions, these judgments remain the leading authority on certification. Practitioners should expect courts to apply the same strictness to s. 63.

When is a Section 63 certificate needed in an investigation?

Any time electronic material is likely to be relied on in litigation, arbitration, a police complaint or a regulatory proceeding. Typical examples include:

• email trails in a business email compromise or vendor fraud matter;
• ERP and ledger extracts in a forensic audit;
• WhatsApp chats and call records from an employee's phone;
• server and access logs showing data exfiltration by an insider.

The safest approach is to plan for certification at the point of collection. A sound forensic imaging process, a documented chain of custody and hash verification make it far easier for an expert to sign Part B with confidence.

Common problems with certificates

• Certificates prepared months later by someone with no knowledge of how the data was collected.
• Screenshots or printouts with no hash value or device particulars.
• A single certificate reused for different versions or extracts of a record.
• Data copied by IT staff using ordinary tools, altering metadata before preservation.
• No record of who held the device between seizure and examination.

How does it differ from related concepts?

A Section 63 certificate is a legal admissibility instrument. Digital forensics is the discipline that produces reliable data to certify. A hash value is the technical fingerprint recorded in the certificate. Chain of custody is the record showing the data was not altered between collection and court. All four work together, and a weakness in any one can undermine the evidence.

Our digital forensics and eDiscovery service covers forensic collection, hashing and documentation designed to support certification. For a fuller walk-through, see our guide to electronic evidence under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. Questions on the admissibility of a specific record should be taken to counsel.