The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023

The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 is an Act that consolidates and provides for general rules and principles of evidence for fair trial.

This Act may be called the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. It applies to all judicial proceedings in or before any Court, including Courts-martial, but not to affidavits presented to any Court or officer, nor to proceedings before an arbitrator. The Act shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

The definitions include:

• "Court" includes all Judges and Magistrates, and all persons, except arbitrators, legally authorized to take evidence.


• Conclusive proof means when one fact is declared by this Adhiniyam to be conclusive proof of another, the Court shall, on proof of the one fact, regard the other as proved, and shall not allow evidence to be given for the purpose of disproving it.


• Disproved in relation to a fact means when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes that it does not exist, or considers its non-existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it does not exist.


• Document means any matter expressed or described or otherwise recorded upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks or any other means or by more than one of those means, intended to be used, or which may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter and includes electronic and digital records.

The Act provides rules for relevancy of facts, including:

• Facts in issue mean and include any fact from which, either by itself or in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature or extent of any right, liability or disability, asserted or denied in any suit or proceeding, necessarily follows.


• Relevant fact means and includes any fact connected with a fact in issue or relevant fact as to form part of the same transaction, are relevant, whether they occurred at the same time and place or at different times and places.