Mobile phone forensics and criminal justice in India: evidentiary reliability, institutional readiness, and reform under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023

Mobile phone evidence is now routine in Indian criminal trials. This study asks whether the admissibility regime of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) and its supporting forensic institutions can secure the reliability of that evidence. Through doctrinal analysis of the BSA, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, case law and official reports, it compares India with Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the European Union on five dimensions. Section 63 of the BSA retains and strengthens the former Section 65B certificate, adding a prescribed form, an expert’s signature and a hash value. Yet a “reliability gap” persists: the certificate attests only the device’s regular operation and the record’s integrity, not attribution, forensic interpretation or acquisition practice. Official data show substantial laboratory vacancies, a cyber-forensic backlog and uneven, voluntary accreditation, whereas comparable systems rely on accreditation, regulators and extraction safeguards, not presumptions. The study concludes that reliability requires regulating the forensic process between seizure and production: a statutory chain-of-custody duty with hashing at extraction, a certificate disclosing method and accreditation status, defence access to the forensic image, and safeguards for device examination. A statutory presumption of integrity should await those reforms.