Problems affecting admissibility of electronic evidence

The admissibility of computer printout in court is set out in sections 90A, 90B and
90C of the Evidence Act 1950. One of the issues of admissibility of computer printout is
whether or not certificate is needed to prove the originality of the printout. s90A(2) lays
out the requirement of producing the certificate from person who is responsible for the
computer work. However, in Standard Chartered case1, the plaintiff had failed to
produce a certificate from the person responsible for computer. The judge stated that
since the production of evidence is done in ordinary course of business, certificate is not
needed unless the evidence is disputed when it was cited. In Gnanasegaran2, the court
accepted his testimony that the statement of accounts was a computer printout even
though a certificate was not produced. Besides, the court has rejected the computer
printout produced by a witness as he has claimed no responsibility to the evidence as in
PP v Ong Cheng Heong3. It is depending on the facts of each case that whether or not
there is a need to produce certificate. Thus, it is important that the production of
computer printout is done in the course of ordinary use and the person who makes the
document is the person responsible to that output. The certificate is not needed as his
oral testimony is sufficient to be admitted to court as evidence. 4
Another issue is that gathering and proving computer evidence will be more
challenging with the development of new technology. The new technique and new tools
used by the criminals to commit crimes in cyberspace challenges computer forensic
investigators or experts. Besides, the admissibility of computer evidence could also be
challenged by attacking the reliability of evidence. Sometimes, the data was tampered
1 Standard Chartered Bank v Mukah Singh [1996] 3 MLJ 240 (HC)
2 Gnanasegaran a/l Pararajasingam v Public Prosecutor [1997] 3 MLJ 1 (CA)
3 PP v Ong Cheng Heong [1948] 6 MLJ 678; [1998] 4 CLJ 209 (HC)
4 Mohamed, Duryana, 'COMPUTER EVIDENCE: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PRESENT
AND IN THE FUTURE' [2011] CE 1, 4

and even destroyed during the gathering process. This will render the evidence being
rejected by the court.5

5 Mohamed, Duryana, 'COMPUTER EVIDENCE: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PRESENT

AND IN THE FUTURE' [2011] CE 1, 7-8