Impossibility Exception To The S.65-B(4) Electronic Evidence Certificate

Abstract

Supreme Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar (2021) judgment has put an interesting exception to the S.65-B(4)’s certificate requirement: when even after applying to the relevant authority holding the electronic document sought to be proved in evidence and threafter to a court under procedural or evidence law, if the certificate cannot be obtained, then the production of the same is excusable in law. This is the impossibility exception based on two latin maxims quoted by the court: 'lex non cogit ad impossibilia' (the law does not demand the impossible) and 'impotentia excusat legem' (if an impossibility bars obedience to law, the disobedience of law is excused) . This article explores the judicially created impossibility exception to the certificate requirement under S.65-B(4) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.