The Ghost In The Machine: Navigating The Self Generated Evidence Dilemma Under The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 8
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 9
Sai Shetye, Thakur Ramnarayan College of Law
Sanika Parab, Thakur Ramnarayan College of Law
ABSTRACT
The enactment of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) represents more than a mere legislative update, it is an ontological shift in the Indian legal system. By replacing the 151-year-old Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (IEA), the BSA purports to decolonize Indian jurisprudence while simultaneously grappling with the Silicon Revolution. This research provides a high density, comparative analysis of the transition from Newtonian, human-centric evidence to the era of Autonomous Machine Evidence. It critiques the BSA’s internal contradictions, specifically the paradox of labelling electronic records as Primary Evidence under Section 57 while retaining the restrictive human centric certification of Section 63. The paper argues that the BSA suffers from an Epistemic Crisis it recognizes digital facts but remains tethered to a Victorian philosophy of accountability. Through a comparative study of the UK’s Presumption of Reliability and the US Machine Hearsay doctrine, this work proposes a new framework for Algorithmic Integrity to protect the Constitutional guarantees of Fair Trial and Privacy in an age of deepfakes and automated prosecution.
Keywords: Autonomous Machine Evidence, Epistemic Crisis, Algorithmic Integrity Framework, Primary vs. Certified Electronic Records, Fair Trial.
