EVIDENTIARY VALUE OF VOICE/CALL

RECORDINGS
 SUPREMECOURT COURT
TO CONSIDER
• Husband discreetly recording conversation of wife
• P&H High Court ruled that it won’t be admissible as evidence in
Family Court
• Infringement of privacy
• Supreme Court to hear matter
 Indian Evidence Act, 1872
• “Electronic record”
• any information contained in an electronic record which is printed on a
paper, stored, recorded or copied in optical or magnetic media
produced by a computer
• shall be admissible in any proceedings, without further proof or
production of the original
 Conditions
• Computer used regularly by person having lawful control
• Similar information being regularly fed into computer
• Computer operating properly
• Information reproduced or derived from information fed into computer
• Certificate by a person occupying a responsible official position in
relation to the operation of the relevant device or the management of
the relevant activities
 Judicial interpretation
• Generally acknowledged the advent and prevalence of technology and
have deemed it imprudent to deny to law evidentiary advantages gain
by new technology.
• Electronically recorded conversations are admissible in evidence
• Contemporaneous electronic recording of conversation is comparable
to photograph.
• Compared also to witness, listening in on conversation.
 Three-part test
• Identification of voice of person, by maker, witness, or expert
• Accuracy of recording to be provide by maker of record
• To rule out possibility of tampering with record
• Relevant under Evidence Act
 Secretly recorded conversation
• Held to be admissible
• Evidence from illegal searches is not prima facie inadmissible
• “Fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine not applicable in India
• This position has continued even after right to privacy has been held to
be a fundamental right
 Admissibility
• Recorded by another device, uploaded on computer, and copied onto
CDs – admissible.
• Electronic record need not be kept in court’s custody.
 Other liability
• Merely because a court allows evidence to be admitted, does not mean
that the person who has illegally collected such evidence is absolved
of liability that may arise, whether in civil or criminal law or both
 Right to privacy
• Recording someone’s conversation with third party amounts to
violation of right to privacy
• Unclear on recording one’s own conversation with someone
• SC has held that allowing the police to record phone conversation
amounted to consent from one party and, thus, is not illegal
THANK YOU!