THE BHARATIYA SAKSHYA ADHINIYAM, 2023

ACT NO. 47 OF 2023

[25th December, 2023.]

An Act to consolidate and to provide for general rules and principles of evidence for fair trial.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventy-fourth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

PART I

CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, application and commencement.

(1) This Act may be called the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.

(2) It applies to all judicial proceedings in or before any Court, including Courts-martial, but not to affidavits presented to any Court or officer, nor to proceedings before an arbitrator.

(3) It shall come into force on such date¹ as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

¹ 1st day of July, 2024, vide notification No. S.O. 849(E), dated, 23rd February, 2024, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(ii).

2. Definitions.

(1) In this Adhiniyam, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(a) “Court” includes all Judges and Magistrates, and all persons, except arbitrators, legally authorised to take evidence;

(b) “conclusive proof” means when one fact is declared by this Adhiniyam to be conclusive proof of another, the Court shall, on proof of the one fact, regard the other as proved, and shall not allow evidence to be given for the purpose of disproving it;

(c) “disproved” in relation to a fact, means when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes that it does not exist, or considers its non-existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it does not exist;

(d) “document” means any matter expressed or described or otherwise recorded upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks or any other means or by more than one of those means, intended to be used, or which may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter and includes electronic and digital records.

Illustrations.

(i) A writing is a document.

(ii) Words printed, lithographed or photographed are documents.

(iii) A map or plan is a document.

(iv) An inscription on a metal plate or stone is a document.

(v) A caricature is a document.

(vi) An electronic record on emails, server logs, documents on computers, laptop or smartphone, messages, websites, locational evidence and voice mail messages stored on digital devices are documents;

(e) “evidence” means and includes—