P26 replaced the Indian Evidence Act 1872 and came into force on 1 July 2024, and Section 63 BSA is the successor to Section 65B IEA — both require a certificate for electronic records tendered as secondary evidence. The Supreme Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal (2020) held that a Section 65B(4) certificate is a mandatory pre-requisite for admitting secondary electronic evidence, while recognising relief where a party genuinely cannot obtain it because the device is in someone else's possession. This is general information only, the law evolves and is now under the BSA, and who must depose to the certificate and how it is tendered depend on the facts of your matter — so read the current provision and the Schedule as they stand and take advice where the stakes warrant it. For a broader walkthrough, this guide to electronic-evidence certificates in India is a good starting point. e-Dex does not guarantee that any record will be admitted — that is for the court to decide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a screenshot admissible as evidence in India?
A screenshot is an electronic record, so under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (the successor to Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act) it generally needs a certificate to be admitted as secondary evidence. It is not automatically admissible just because it is shown on a screen, and admissibility is ultimately decided by the court on the facts.

Why are screenshots considered weak evidence?
A screenshot is a picture of a screen, not the underlying record. It can be cropped, edited in any image tool or fabricated outright, and it carries no built-in proof of which device or app it came from. With no source context and no integrity proof, a bare screenshot is easy for the other side to challenge.

How do I make a screenshot court-admissible?
Wherever possible capture the original instead of a screenshot: export the chat, save the web page as a PDF with its URL, or obtain the actual statement. If a screenshot is genuinely all you have, record the device, the app or source, the date and time and who captured it, then hash the image file and produce a Section 63 / 65B certificate. The court still decides admissibility.

Do I need a Section 65B certificate for a screenshot?
A screenshot tendered as secondary electronic evidence generally needs a certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, which has replaced Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act since 1 July 2024. The Supreme Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar (2020) treated such a certificate as a mandatory pre-requisite for secondary electronic evidence, so plan to provide one.

Can an edited screenshot be detected?
Not always from the picture alone, which is why screenshots are weak. Hashing the image file does not prove the picture is genuine, but it fingerprints the exact bytes so anyone can confirm the file has not changed since it was certified. Capturing the original record and preserving the source device give far stronger grounds to detect or rebut tampering.

Conclusion

A screenshot is the easiest evidence to produce and the easiest to attack. Whenever you can, capture the original — export the chat, save the page with its URL, get the real statement — and certify that instead. When a screenshot is genuinely all that survives, do not leave it bare: preserve the source, record the device, app, date and capturer, hash the image file and wrap it in a signed, timestamped Section 63 certificate so the court has something it can actually verify. Take the screenshot or export the original yourself, then let e-Dex — the Digital Evidence Integrity Suite hash the file, capture the details and generate a court-ready certificate on your own Windows machine, fully offline and free to try.