New Delhi | The Supreme Court recently urged the State of Tamil Nadu to ensure its police officials are properly trained on the procedure to obtain a certificate under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, which deals with the submission of authenticated electronic evidence [William Stephen vs State of Tamil Nadu and anr].
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation after noting that the investigating officer who was in charge of probing a 2010 kidnapping case appeared to be unaware of the procedure to be followed under Section 65B.
The Court opined that the police cannot be faulted for not being aware of the procedure laid down in this provision.
“Before we part with the judgment, we must note here that the PW-19, the Investigating Officer, was not aware of the procedure to be followed for obtaining a certificate under Section 65B of the Evidence Act. He cannot be blamed as a proper training was not imparted to him. The State Government must ensure that the Police Officers are imparted proper training on this aspect,” the bench said.