BSA 2023 Section 63 Certificate
Definition
Mandatory certificate accompanying any electronic record produced as secondary evidence in Indian court. Replaces IEA Section 65B from 1 July 2024. Signed by the person in charge of the device at the time of production.
- Requirement
- Mandatory for electronic secondary evidence
- Effective from
- 1 July 2024
- Predecessor
- IEA Section 65B
- Signed by
- Person in charge of the device at production
- Jurisdiction
- India
Common questions
What does the Section 63 certificate actually certify?+
It confirms how the electronic record was produced or stored, that the device was functioning properly, and identifies the person responsible for it, so the court can treat a copy as reliable secondary evidence.
Can electronic evidence be admitted without this certificate?+
Generally no, courts following the Section 65B line of authority have held the certificate is mandatory for secondary electronic evidence, though the original device can sometimes be produced and proved directly instead.
Related terms
- Bit-Stream Image
- Sector-by-sector exact copy of a storage medium, including unallocated and slack space. Created with dd, FTK Imager, EnCase or X-Ways. Output formats:...
- Computer Forensics
- Application of investigative and analytical techniques to identify, preserve, acquire, examine and present digital evidence in a legally defensible manner. Five-stage pipeline:...
- Digital Evidence
- Any information of probative value stored or transmitted in binary form. Latent, volatile in part, easily altered, and admissible only if integrity...
- Faraday Bag
- A signal-blocking pouch with conductive mesh lining that prevents cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC signals from reaching a seized phone. The standard...
- Hash Value
- A fixed-length digital fingerprint produced by running a file through a cryptographic algorithm such as SHA-256 or MD5. Identical files produce identical...
- Order of Volatility
- The sequence in which digital evidence should be collected, ranked from most to least transient. Defined in RFC 3227. CPU registers and...
- Volatile Evidence
- Data that exists only while a system is running: active processes, logged-in sessions, network socket state, decryption keys in memory, and command...
- Write Blocker
- A hardware or software device interposed between a digital storage medium and the forensic workstation that prevents any write commands from reaching...