Cryptographic Integrity Vs. Procedural Accessibility: Analyzing Section 63(4) Of The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 In The Wake Of Pune Bar Association V. Union Of India
- IJLLR Journal
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
Rudra Prasad Rimal, LLM (Criminal Law), Faculty of Law, ICFAI University, Gangtok, Sikkim.
ABSTRACT
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) introduced an elevated standard for the admissibility of secondary electronic evidence. Section 63(4) read with the Schedule of the BSA, requires the litigants to submit a Part A certificate disclosing the cryptographic hash value and Part B certificate requires expert certification. The Supreme Court in Pune Bar Association v. Union of India & Ors. (2026), while upholding the constitutional validity of this framework, reasoned that the hash values act as vital "digital fingerprints" necessary in order to combat the digital tampering, deepfakes, and Artificial Intelligence driven manipulation of evidence. The Court’s decision by harmoniously interpreting Section 39(1) and 39(2) provides much-needed flexibility to expand the pool of eligible forensic experts beyond Section 79A of the IT Act. However, critical technical and practical ambiguities remained unaddressed. This article will examine the operational complexities arising due to mandatory hash value disclosure, particularly due to the fragility of digital metadata, the lack of standardized hashing algorithms (e.g., SHA-256 vs. MD5), and the procedural burden on ordinary, non-technical litigants. This article will compare the BSA’s cryptographic mandates with international electronic evidence standards, viz; US Federal Rule of Evidence 902 and other international rules. Finally, this article in order to balance evidentiary integrity with constitutional access to justice will propose regulatory guidelines, algorithm standardization, and accessible forensic tooling.
Keywords: Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), Electronic Evidence, Hash Value, Cyber Forensics, Section 63(4), Deepfakes, Pune Bar Association, Digital Integrity.
