The certificate asks for a hash. So produce one.
Since 1 July 2024, section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam has replaced section 65B of the Evidence Act. An electronic record is admissible without producing the original device, but only with a certificate, and that certificate now has to state the hash value of the record and carry two signatures instead of one. If you captured the page with a phone screenshot, you have nothing to put in that box.
Works on Chrome and Edge. From $4.99 (about ₹480) as a one-off, or a 7-day trial that requires a payment card.
WhatsApp Business · +91 98xxx xxxxx
Yesterday, 11:42
“Send the balance today and I will courier the papers by evening. You have my word.”
Phone reset before the hearing. No device, no certificate, no record.
Captured & sealed
SHA-256 · ready for Part A and Part B
Illustrative example. Fictional account, not a real post.
In India, section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, in force since 1 July 2024, makes an electronic record admissible only with a certificate that states the hash value of the record. ProofSnap generates that SHA-256 hash at the moment of capture, together with the URL and the capture time in UTC.
Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 came into force on 1 July 2024 and replaced section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act 1872. The structure survives: information contained in an electronic record, printed on paper or stored on optical or magnetic media or in semiconductor memory, is deemed a document and is admissible without further proof or production of the original, provided the conditions in the section are met and a certificate accompanies it. Two things changed and both matter. The certificate is now in two parts: Part A is signed by the person in lawful control of the device, Part B by an expert who certifies the technical particulars. And under section 63(4)(c) the certificate must state the hash value of the electronic record. Courts have described that hash as an electronic fingerprint, a reliable way to test whether a file has been altered. That is the whole point of this page: the statute names the exact artefact a forensic capture produces. A 2026 study by Dr Arti Singh in the International Innovations and Scholarly Trends Journal (IISTJ), covering 82 trial court orders from Delhi and Mumbai between July 2024 and August 2026, found that certificate-related rejections of electronic evidence fell from 67 per cent to 3.6 per cent after the change, but that overall rejection still ran at 37.8 per cent, and that 61.3 per cent of those rejections were for non-production of the hash value. The certificate stopped being the bottleneck. The hash became one. ProofSnap captures the page, the chat, the listing or the dashboard and returns a package containing the full page, the saved source, the URL, the capture time in UTC, an SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and an optional eIDAS qualified timestamp. The hash you need for the certificate is generated at the moment of capture, not reconstructed afterwards. From $4.99 (about ₹480) as a one-off.
Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
Where the certificate fails
The record survives. The proof that it is unaltered does not.
Most section 63 problems are not about admissibility in principle. They are about a certificate nobody can complete honestly.
No hash means an incomplete certificate
The certificate has to state the hash value of the record. If the file was screenshotted, forwarded, compressed and re-saved before anyone thought about evidence, the hash you compute today describes that chain, not the original. There is nothing to certify.
The device disappears before the hearing
Part A is signed by the person in lawful control of the device. Phones are reset, replaced and handed on. A capture that stands on its own does not depend on producing the handset a year later.
The page changes while the matter is pending
Listings, profiles, terms and dashboards are edited without notice. A record produced from the live page months later is a different record, and the difference is exactly what the other side will argue about.
What section 63 actually requires
Knowing the shape of the certificate tells you what to preserve, and it is more than the picture.
A certificate, or the original device
An electronic record is admissible without producing the original only when accompanied by a certificate under section 63. If you produce the device itself and the record is shown from it, the certificate is not required, which is why the certificate question only arises for copies, and copies are what everybody actually files.
Two signatures, not one
The certificate is completed in two parts. The person in lawful control of the device signs Part A. An expert signs Part B and certifies the technical particulars. This is the main change from section 65B and it is where unprepared filings stall.
The hash value goes in the certificate
Section 63(4)(c) requires the hash value of the electronic record to be stated. Courts have treated it as an electronic fingerprint that lets them test whether the file was tampered with. It is the one field you cannot improvise.
It applies from 1 July 2024
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the Evidence Act on 1 July 2024. Older material and older guidance still refer to section 65B; the framework is the same in outline, but the certificate is not.
“[H]ash value of an electronic data is synonymous with an electronic fingerprint and provides a sure way of identifying and verifying digital data”
What ProofSnap does and does not do
ProofSnap generates the SHA-256 hash of every file at the moment of capture, records the URL and the capture time in UTC, signs the manifest, and produces a readable report with the technical particulars. It does not sign your certificate. Part A and Part B are signed by people: the person in lawful control of the device and an expert. In May 2026 the Supreme Court held that the expert is not confined to an Examiner of Electronic Evidence notified under section 79A of the IT Act. Reading the two sub-sections of section 39 harmoniously, the Court said it is possible to hold that “in addition to entities notified as Examiner of Electronic Evidence under Section 79A, if the Court is satisfied, on the basis of unimpeachable material, that any other person has special skill and expertise in computer science and cyber forensics, opinion of such person may be held relevant as an expert with regard to electronic/digital record and such person may sign Part B of the Schedule as an expert”. What the package supplies is the awkward part: a hash worth certifying, and a record that demonstrably has not changed since it was taken.
How do I capture a page in 41 seconds?
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your account of how careful you were.
Capture before anything is forwarded
Open the page, the chat or the dashboard in Chrome or Edge and capture it from the side panel. Do this before screenshotting, forwarding or compressing anything, because every one of those steps changes the file you will later have to certify.
The package seals itself
Every file receives an SHA-256 hash, the manifest is signed with an RSA-4096 key, and the manifest hash is anchored to Bitcoin. The capture time is recorded in UTC, independent of your device clock.
Complete the certificate from the report
The evidence report sets out the hash, the URL, the capture time and the technical particulars. The hash goes into Part A, which the person in lawful control of the device signs, and the technical particulars are what the expert needs for Part B.
What is in the evidence package?
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier, and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate rupee figures are for orientation only, converted at about ₹96 to US$1, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One matter
$4.99 once
about ₹480
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one matter and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
about ₹860
For anyone who captures regularly: advocates, compliance teams, investigators, brand protection. The 7-day free trial requires a payment card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
about ₹4,300
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. India has no equivalent of an EU qualified timestamp, so the eIDAS option carries no presumption before an Indian court and is offered on Enterprise plans for cross-border matters. What section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam asks for is the hash value of the record, which every package contains.
Official sources
Every figure and citation on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Section 63, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 the provision itself, including the certificate requirement.
- India Code: Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 the Act as enacted, from the official repository.
- Pune Bar Association v. Union of India (Supreme Court, May 2026) the judgment upholding section 63(4) and the Schedule, and widening who may sign Part B.
- Electronic Evidence After BSA 2023, IISTJ 2026 the study of 82 trial court orders quoted above, including the 61.3 per cent figure.
- Electronic evidence under the BSA 2023 a practitioner overview of the change from section 65B.
Nothing here is legal advice, and the certificate is a document that people sign under their own responsibility. What a capture changes is whether the hash in that certificate describes the record as it was, or the record as it survived being forwarded.
Questions people actually ask
The statute names the hash. Bring one.
Capture the record before it is forwarded, compressed or wiped with the device.