BACK TO IT ACT
IT Act 2000AMENDED 2008

Section 79A

Central Government to Notify Examiner of Electronic Evidence

THE STATUTE

Original Text

The Central Government may, for the purposes of providing expert opinion on electronic form evidence before any court or other authority, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint any department, body or agency of the Central Government or a State Government as an Examiner of Electronic Evidence.

Simplified

Section 79A creates the framework for Government-notified Examiners of Electronic Evidence — specialised forensic bodies whose expert opinion on electronic evidence carries statutory recognition before courts and tribunals. Electronic evidence is increasingly central to litigation of all kinds — criminal trials, civil disputes, company law proceedings, and arbitrations all regularly involve emails, device data, server logs, and digital communications. Section 79A addresses the challenge of establishing the authenticity, integrity, and accuracy of electronic evidence through expert forensic examination by a notified government body. The Central Government has notified several agencies under Section 79A: the Computer Forensics and Scientific Evidence Division of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL); the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC); and various state-level forensic science laboratories. Expert opinions from these notified Examiners carry weight as government expert evidence — courts may accept them without calling the examiner as a witness unless specifically challenged, streamlining proceedings. Section 79A should be read with the electronic evidence admissibility framework under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act (now Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023), which requires a certificate from a responsible official to make electronic records admissible in court. The Examiner of Electronic Evidence provides the forensic analysis; the Section 65B/63 BSA certificate provides the admissibility foundation.

Common Queries

Bodies notified include the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), regional forensic science laboratories, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) of the CBI, and state forensic laboratories.
A report from a notified Examiner of Electronic Evidence is admissible as expert evidence under Section 45A of the Indian Evidence Act (now Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023) — without requiring the examiner to necessarily appear for cross-examination.
No. Section 79A limits notification to government departments, bodies, or agencies — private forensics firms cannot be notified as Examiners under this provision.

Legal Evolution

Section 79A was inserted by the IT (Amendment) Act 2008. By 2008, courts across India were grappling with electronic evidence without clear guidance on which forensic bodies to trust. Section 79A created a government-notified framework that provides institutional certainty — notified examiners are presumed reliable unless successfully challenged.

Key Amendments

Inserted by IT (Amendment) Act 2008 — no equivalent in the original IT Act 2000.

BSA 2023 (Section 63) updates the electronic evidence admissibility framework that Section 79A Examiners operate within.

CFSL and C-DAC are the primary Central Government-notified Examiners of Electronic Evidence.

Landmark Precedents

Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal (2020)

(2020) 7 SCC 1
RELEVANCE

Supreme Court (Constitution Bench) settled the Section 65B certificate requirement for electronic evidence admissibility — the foundational case for understanding how Section 79A Examiner opinions interact with the evidence admissibility framework.