Evidentiary Value of Banker’s Book

Relevancy of bank records

Section 34 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872 elucidates that book of accounts, including Bank
records, which are maintained in the daily course of business in electronic form or otherwise
are relevant1(CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION V/SV.C. SHUKLA & ORS.) to be
admissible in a court of law. For establishing liability of a person, however further proof and
Evidence relating the same may have to be submitted.

Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891

The Bankers' Books Evidence Act 1891 provides guidelines to banking institutions about legal
proceedings relating to banking records. This is an Act which was brought into force to amend
the Law of Evidence with respect to banking records

This Act tends to illustrate the provisions, which provide for the conditions which are to be
followed while submitting bank records as Evidence in a court of law. Section 4 of Banker's
Book Evidence Act 1891, deals with the mode of proving such bank records. It provides that:

“a certified copy of any entry in a banker’s book shall in all legal proceedings be received as
prima facie evidence of the existence of such entry, and shall be admitted as evidence of the
matters, transactions and accounts therein recorded in every case where, and to the same extent
as, the original entry itself is now by law admissible, but not further or otherwise”

Bank records should be accompanied by a certificate in accordance with section 2(8) and 2A of
the Act. The certificate is to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the entry in banking records.
The printout of entry or copy of such printout along with the certificate by the branch
manager/principal accountant and the person in charge of the computer resource which generated
that entry together makes a "certified copy". A certified copy of any entry of banker's book shall
be admissible prima facie as Evidence.

Section 65B is pari materiaui to section 2A of the Banker's Book Evidence Act, which means
they are to be construed together. Section 65B of the Act lays down conditions to be followed
while admitting Secondary Evidence in electronic form. "Generalia specialibus non derogant", a
special law will always prevail over the general law. Hence it can be construed that even though
there is a provision under the Evidence Act dealing with the admissibility of electronic records
(65B), section 2A of Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891 specifically deals with the admissibility
of banking entries in electronic form. So according to the principle of Generalia Specialibus
section 2A of the Act is to be referred while dealing with the admissibility of banking records in
electronic form and not section 65B.

Admissibility of Bank Records

On April 24th, 2009, RBI published a notification advising State and Central Co-operative Banks
to comply with the provisions of Banker's Books Evidence Act, 1891 while furnishing certified
copies and computer printouts to courts. The notification further says that if such statutory
certification is not complied with, the courts will not be obliged to admit the document in
Evidence without any further proof.

When we look from the viewpoint of Judiciary relating to the nature of certification under the
Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891, the decision of different courts helps us understand the
concept better. Bombay High Court in one of its judgemen ( Radheshyam G. Garg vs. Safiyabai
Ibrahim Lightwalla AIR 1988 ) held that when a certificate is signed by an agent of bank,
validating the records to be a true copy of the original entry in records, which were maintained in
usual course of business and were kept in custody of the bank, then in such cases the court
should not adopt a hyper-technical view and should not focus on all the conditions provided for
certification under section 2(8) of the Act because the detailed ingredients mentioned in the
definition clause are only of directory in nature and not mandatory.

Objection for Uncertified Banking Records

The nature of the statutory provisions as discussed above, however, the primary question which
bursts out is whether or not an objection pertaining to the admissibility of banking records
submitted in court without such certification is possible or not? And if possible, then whether the
court will accept such Evidence or not?
These questions are not new! Hence there are some case laws answering the same. Hon'ble
Supreme Court in some recent judgments held that an objection, if any, has to be raised relating
to the admissibility of a banking record, such objection has to be raised at the time when such
record is tendered in Evidence and not after that.

Conclusion

Banking records are a valid and reliable source of Evidence. However, for ensuring their
accuracy, certification method under the provisions of Banker's Books Evidence Act, 1891 is to
be complied with. While certification process, this should be kept in mind that the ingredients
under section 2(8) of the Act are the only directory and not mandatory, hence a rigid and highly
technical attitude will not be of much use while complying with the provision. If an objection
regarding the mode of proof has to be made, it should be at the very stage when such document
is tendered in Evidence, before it is marked as an exhibit, and not after that 13( M/S ICICI BANK
LIMITED V/S KAPIL DEV SHARMA). If a record submitted is inadmissible, it will remain
inadmissible whether an objection was raised or not, or whether it was marked as an exhibit.

Statutory provisions

Sec 34 of Indian Evidence Act

Entries in books of account when relevant: Entries in the books of account, including those
maintained in an electronic form], regularly kept in the course of business, are relevant whenever
they refer to a matter into which the Court has to inquire, but such statements shall not alone be
sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability.

Sec 65 B of Indian Evidence Act

Admissibility of electronic records

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, 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 (hereinafter referred to as the computer output) shall be deemed to be
also a document, if the conditions mentioned in this section are satisfied in relation to the
information and computer in question and shall be admissible in any proceedings, without further
proof or production of the original, as evidence or any contents of the original or of any fact
stated therein of which direct evidence would be admissible.

(2) The conditions referred to in sub-section (1) in respect of a computer output shall be the
following, namely:--

(a) the computer output containing the information was produced by the computer during the
period over which the computer was used regularly to store or process information for the
purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that period by the person having lawful
control over the use of the computer;

(b) during the said period, information of the kind contained in the electronic record or of the
kind from which the information so contained is derived was regularly fed into the computer in
the ordinary course of the said activities;

(c) throughout the material part of the said period, the computer was operating properly or, if not,
then in respect of any period in which it was not operating properly or was out of operation
during that part of the period, was not such as to affect the electronic record or the accuracy of its
contents; and

(d) the information contained in the electronic record reproduces or is derived from such
information fed into the computer in the ordinary course of the said activities.

(3) Where over any period, the function of storing or processing information for the purposes of
any activities regularly carried on over that period as mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (2)
was regularly performed by computers, whether--
(a) by a combination of computers operating over that period; or

(b) by different computers operating in succession over that period; or

(c) by different combinations of computers operating in succession over that period; or

(d) in any other manner involving the successive operation over that period, in whatever order, of
one or more computers and one or more combinations of computers,

all the computers used for that purpose during that period shall be treated for the purposes of this
section as constituting a single computer; and references in this section to a computer shall be
construed accordingly.

(4) In any proceedings where it is desired to give a statement in evidence by virtue of this
section, a certificate doing any of the following things, that is to say, --

(a) identifying the electronic record containing the statement and describing the manner in which
it was produced;

(b) giving such particulars of any device involved in the production of that electronic record as
may be appropriate for the purpose of showing that the electronic record was produced by a
computer;

(c) dealing with any of the matters to which the conditions mentioned in sub-section (2) relate,
and purporting to be signed by a person occupying a responsible official position in relation to
the operation of the relevant device or the management of the relevant activities (whichever is
appropriate) shall be evidence of any matter stated in the certificate; and for the purposes of this
subsection it shall be sufficient for a matter to be stated to the best of the knowledge and belief of
the person stating it.

(5) For the purposes of this section,

(a) information shall be taken to be supplied to a computer if it is supplied thereto in any

(b) whether in the course of activities carried on by any official, information is supplied with a
view to its being stored or processed for the purposes of those activities by a computer operated
otherwise than in the course of those activities, that information, if duly supplied to that
computer, shall be taken to be supplied to it in the course of those activities;

(c) a computer output shall be taken to have been produced by a computer whether it was
produced by it directly or (with or without human intervention) by means of any appropriate
equipment.

Explanation. -- For the purposes of this section any reference to information being derived from
other information shall be a reference to its being derived therefrom by calculation, comparison
or any other process. ]
Sec 2(8) of Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891:-

“certified copy” means a copy of any entry in the books of a bank together with a certificate
written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such entry, that such entry is contained in
one of the ordinary books of the bank and was made in the usual and ordinary course of business,
and that such book is still in the custody of the bank, 1 [and where the copy was obtained by a
mechanical or other process which in itself ensured the accuracy of the copy, a further certificate
to that effect, but where the book from which such copy was prepared has been destroyed in the
usual course of the bank’s business after the date on which the copy had been so prepared, a
further certificate to that effect, each such certificate being dated and subscribed by the principal
accountant or manager of the bank with his name and official title].

Sec 2A of Banker's Book Evidence Act 1891:

(a) a certificate to the effect that it is a printout of such entry or a copy of such printout by the
principal accountant or branch manager; and

(b) a certificate by a person in-charge of computer system containing a brief description of

(A) the safeguards adopted by the system to ensure that data is entered or any other
operation performed only by authorised persons;

(B) the safeguards adopted to prevent and detect unauthorised change of data;

(C) the safeguards available to retrieve data that is lost due to systemic failure or any
other reasons;

(D) the manner in which data is transferred from the system to removable media like
floppies, discs, tapes or other electro-magnetic data storage devices;
 (E) the mode of verification in order to ensure that data has been accurately transferred
to such removable media;

(F) the mode of identification of such data storage devices;

(G) the arrangements for the storage and custody of such storage devices;

(H) the safeguards to prevent and detect any tampering with the system; and

(I) any other factor which will vouch for the integrity and accuracy of the system.

(c) a further certificate from the person in-charge of the computer system to the effect that to
the best of his knowledge and belief, such computer system operated properly at the
material time, he was provided with all the relevant data and the printout in question
represents correctly, or is appropriately derived from, the relevant data. ]