CD is a document under law, says SC

The Supreme Court has held that a compact disc (CD) is to be treated as a document under the law and litigants should be allowed to prove the authenticity of such electronic evidence in legal proceedings.

The court was passing a judgment in a case of child sex abuse in which the accused wanted to place on record a CD of taped telephone conversations to prove his “innocence”.

A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and P.C. Pant set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order agreeing with the trial court’s decision to deny the accused’s plea to produce recorded telephonic conversation between his wife and son and the girl’s father to prove his point that there was a property dispute between the two families.

The apex court did not go into the authenticity of the taped conversations or the CD, but asked the trial court to allow the accused to place it on record.

“Without expressing any opinion as to the final merits of the case, this appeal is allowed and the orders passed by the trial court and the HC are set aside. The application [for placing on record the compact disc and getting it examined by forensic laboratory] shall stand allowed,” it said.

“We are of the view that the courts below have erred in law in not allowing the application of the defence to play the compact disc relating to the conversation between the father of the victim and son and wife of the appellant [accused] regarding alleged property dispute,” the court held.