Section 85C

Section 85C completes the trilogy of evidentiary presumptions in Sections 85A–85C by creating a presumption as to the accuracy of Electronic Signature Certificate contents. When a certificate has been accepted by the subscriber, the court presumes that all information listed in it is correct — the subscriber's name, the linked public key, the issuing CA's identity, and the validity period are all presumed accurate unless the challenger proves otherwise. The critical carve-out is 'subscriber information which has not been verified' — if the Certifying Authority's CPS states that certain subscriber information (e.g., job title, organisation name) was self-declared rather than independently verified, that information does not benefit from the Section 85C presumption. This distinction between verified and unverified certificate contents is technically precise: Class 3 certificates with enhanced identity verification attract the full presumption; self-declared information does not. Together, Sections 85A, 85B, and 85C create an interlocking evidentiary framework: the certificate contents are presumed accurate (85C); the secure signature based on that certificate is presumed to belong to the subscriber (85B); and the document signed is presumed unaltered since signing (85A). This framework substantially reduces the evidentiary burden in e-commerce and digital contract disputes.