One of my friends Nikhil have been working in clerical department for a private company for past three years. Along with my friend there are a number people within the same department.
There is this one guy named Ishan in his office who loves to exhibit his approaches in the company and outside as well, basically he loves to boast about himself so that he is the centre of attention in everything. While on the other hand, at times of need, he's no where around. It has happened a few times that if someone is looking forward for his help/approach, he's unwilling to help (could be that all he boasts about is false).
So my friend Nikhil doesn't want to get along with Ishan due to his attitude. Now recently, the company hosted a party in order to celebrate New Year, where things went off a bit since both of them had a rough pep talk. All of the rest invitees stopped the issue there and then only, in order to avoid any mishappening.
Later that night, when everyone reached their respective homes, Ishan texted Nikhil (using WhatsApp application) regarding the matter and started to boast off as usual about his approach and all, to which Nikhil replied in an intensive manner where he said he would beat him up badly and even threatened his life.
Since the matter was already out of control Ishan complained about Nikhil to the HR. A few days back my friend Nikhil received a notice from his HR department regarding the intense messages (death threats) sent by him.
My question is that if the matter moves towards a police complaint or to the court, will my friend be liable for any offence as all the talk took place on WhatsApp and was not physical at all? Does WhatsApp messages even hold any evidentiary value?
Good evening,
Any electronic document or evidence which can be printed, and has a signature from the person authorised to do so, will be considered as evidence for court proceedings, under section 65(B) of the Indian Evidence Act.
If the following conditions {stated under section 65(B)(2)} are satisfied, then the electronic documents will be considered as evidence for proceedings-
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.
(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.
Meaning that, the computer, or device must have been in use regularly for regular activities WHILE the commission of offense, and that even if there was any issue with the operation of the device, it should not have been to induce the tampering of such evidence.
Please refer to this link to understand more about Section 65(B) of the Indian Evidence Act-
https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/proving-electronic-evidence-under-the-evidence-act-13465.asp
Hope this helped-
Regards,
Nandini
