The certificate asks for a hash. So produce one.
With effect from 1 July 2024, Section 63 of India’s Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaced the certificate requirement of the old Evidence Act. The certificate comes in two parts and both must state the hash value of the electronic record. ProofSnap generates that SHA-256 hash at the moment of capture, with the URL and the capture time in UTC.
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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 conversation.
What changed on 1 July 2024. 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. The certificate prescribed in the Schedule now has two parts: Part A is completed by the party producing the record, Part B by an expert. And both parts must state the hash value of the electronic record, with the hash report enclosed. The Supreme Court has described that hash as an electronic fingerprint. That is the whole point of this page: the Schedule names the exact artefact a forensic capture produces.
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 · · Captures can be verified independently with the 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 the copy at the end of that chain, not the original. There is nothing to certify.
The device disappears before the hearing
Part A asks the party to identify the source 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 what the certificate asks for tells you what to preserve, and that is more than a screenshot. In Hindi: धारा 63 का प्रमाणपत्र और हैश वैल्यू
A certificate with every copy
A copy of an electronic record relied on under Section 63 must be accompanied by the certificate, submitted along with the record each time it is tendered for admission. Copies are what almost everybody actually files, so in practice the certificate is the question that matters.
Two signatures, not one
The certificate is completed in two parts. The party producing the record completes Part A. An expert completes Part B. This is the main change from the old certificate requirement and it is where unprepared filings stall.
The hash value goes in the certificate
The certificate in the Schedule asks for the hash value of the electronic record in both parts, with the hash report enclosed. The Supreme Court has called that hash an electronic fingerprint. It is the one field you cannot improvise.
It applies to proceedings from 1 July 2024
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the Evidence Act on 1 July 2024, and proceedings already pending on that date continue under the old Act. Older material and older guidance still refer to the old certificate requirement; 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 completed and signed by the party producing the record and by an expert. On who may act as the expert, the same order observed that the Madras High Court’s finding (that only an Examiner of Electronic Evidence notified by the government may sign Part B) is not to be treated as a binding precedent, and kept the question of law open. What the package supplies is the hard part: a hash worth certifying, and a record that demonstrably has not changed since it was captured.
What does the Section 63 certificate format ask for?
The Section 63 certificate format is fixed by the Schedule to the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Part A is headed “To be filled by the Party” and Part B “To be filled by the Expert”, and between them they ask for six things:
- Who is making the statement: name, son/daughter/spouse of, and where the person resides or is employed, made as a solemn affirmation.
- The source device: computer or storage media, DVR, mobile, flash drive, CD/DVD, server, cloud or other, with make and model, serial number and the IMEI, UIN, UID, MAC or Cloud ID as applicable.
- Control of the source (Part A only): that the device was under lawful control for regular use and working properly, and whether it is owned, maintained, managed or operated by the person signing.
- The hash value and the algorithm: SHA1, SHA256, MD5 or any other legally acceptable standard.
- The hash report, enclosed with the certificate.
- Signature, date, time and place: the date as DD/MM/YYYY and the time in IST in 24-hour format. Part B adds the expert’s designation.
A ProofSnap package covers items 4 and 5: the evidence PDF and the signed manifest list the SHA-256 hash of the captured files. The capture time is recorded in UTC, so add 5 hours 30 minutes for IST. Items 1, 2, 3 and 6 are statements the people signing make themselves.
How do I capture a page with its hash?
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, on every plan except Essential, 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 both parts of the certificate: Part A, completed by the party producing the record, and Part B, completed by the expert, who also needs the technical particulars.
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 (not on Essential), so the capture 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 indicative only, converted at about ₹96 to the US dollar (rate as of October 2026), 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 and brand protection teams. 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 page and prepares 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. The eIDAS presumption is EU law and does not bind an Indian court; the eIDAS option, available on the Enterprise and Company plans and as an eIDAS SnapPack, is worth using in 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 legal citation on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Section 63 and the Schedule, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (Gazette of India text): the provision and the two-part certificate form, both parts asking for the hash value.
- Pune Bar Association v. Union of India, W.P.(C) No. 599 of 2026 (Supreme Court, order dated 22 May 2026, LiveLaw copy): the challenge to Section 63(4) and the Schedule, not entertained, with the question of who may sign Part B kept open.
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 lost when the device is wiped.