Analysis of Impact of Social Media and Information Technology on Evidence Law

It is undeniable that this era is era of information technology. Focus of every country is on digital advancement. India is not an exception to this and focus of the country is on Digital India. Legal field is drastically changing by the advancement of science and technology as technology has become an integral part of judicial system. Drastic change have taken field in legal field with digitalization of legal works, online hearing, submission of file after scanning all the documents are now days a common trend, E-courts are need of the hour. Government is also taking steps for improvement if digital infrastructure, as it has dual advantage firstly it is cost effective and secondly bulk of information can be stored without fear of physical loss of document as within a minute same document can be easily stored in multiple number of digital file in different mode if digital arability. With digitalisation of legal work one common question is arising that how much weight age shall be given to digital evidence in court, because digital evidence are very delicate in nature and can easily be tempered. By the passing of IT Act, 2000, relevancy and admissibility of digital evidence has been fixed though amendment in Indian Evidence Act, 1872. But basic condition of admissibility is still governed by the Act. Electronic evidence are so called Digital evidence have been admitted as documentary evidence under S/3 of the Indian Evidence Act, which provides “all documents including electronic records produced for the inspection of the court are called documentary evidence”. The main difference is that the verbal statement produced as evidence is called oral evidence while verbal statement contained in electronic record is treated as documentary evidence are records. Use of science and technology by criminals, in commission of crime, is increasing day by day and to deal with such crime and criminals, it is very important that the investigating agencies must be aware and trained about such technologies. Collection of scientific evidence is important aspect of crime investigation, police officers involved in collection of direct evidence, are hardly trained in collection of scientific evidence. Another issue is that there is neither specific guideline of court nor any specific law to deal with scientific investigation. The Information technology Act, 2000 brought certain important changes in Indian Evidence Act, 1872, specially in regard to admissibility of electronic evidence, but this admissibility is subject to certain condition laid down the Act itself. Investigating agencies while conducting investigation especially scientific investigation, collects a number of scientific evidence like tape recorded conversation, Facebook, WhatsApp chat messages, Mobile text messages, mobile communication records and so on. However how much weightage shall be given to such evidence is subject to controversy. Social media has changed the way of interaction with each other. The main thrust of this paper is to analyse different type of Social media evidence and to find out how much evidentiary value is given by courts. Whether such scientific evidence may be concluded as a conclusive proof or not, needs to be analyised. Indian evidence Act doesn’t contain any provision how the accuracy or validity of such evidence is to be decided or it is totally on the capability of the court. Author will suggest some factors to be taken into consideration while appreciating such evidence.