Decoding Section 63(4) of BSA, 2023: Supreme Court Settles the Controversy on Hash Values and Expert Certificates in Pune Bar Association v. UOI : Electronic Evidence under Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam: Why the Supreme Court Upheld Section 63(4) and Redefined "Expert" Criteria : The Digital Fingerprint of Law: Supreme Court's Landmark Clarification on Hash Values, Expert Signatures, and BSA Section 63(4)
1. Introduction The transition from the old Indian Evidence Act, 1872, to the newly enacted Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA), has triggered intense academic and courtroom debates . At the absolute center of this legal shift is Section 63(4) of the BSA , which introduces rigorous statutory prerequisites for admitting secondary electronic records into evidence . In a significant order passed by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in Pune Bar Association v. Union of India and Others (2026) , the apex court evaluated the constitutional validity of this stringent new regime . The petitioner challenged the mandatory requirements of disclosing "hash values" and procuring expert signatures, calling them "manifestly arbitrary" and excessively burdensome for ordinary litigants . This landmark judgment clears the air on electronic evidence authentication, providing essential clarity for contemporary litigation, future judicial exams, and technological ad...