COMMERCIAL HIGH COURT ADMITS SMS AS EVIDENCE
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In a landmark order delivered by Honorable K T Chitrasiri, the Commercial High Court Judge of Colombo, photo copies containing screen-shots of Short Message Services (commonly known as “SMS”) were allowed to be marked and produced in evidence in a money recovery case – Case No. H.C. (Civil) 181/2007(MR).
In this case, Marine Star (Pvt) Ltd., the Plaintiff sought to admit photo copies of several SMS’s, copied from the messages received on a mobile phone, to prove admission of liability by the Defendant, Amanda Foods Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. Learned Counsel for the defendant objected to all those documents being produced in evidence stating that no provision in law is available for the Court to admit the contents of such documents in evidence.
Commercial High Court Judge, K T Chitrasiri, having considered the issue carefully, made the following points in his judgment.
(1) The document sought to be produced being a photocopy (not the original) does not fall into the category of “Primary Evidence”. It belongs to the category of “Secondary Evidence”.
(2) Section 63 of the Evidence Ordinance stipulates that the “Secondary Evidence”, includes copies made from the original by mechanical process which in themselves ensure the accuracy of the copy, and copies compared with such copies. It also permits the oral accounts of the contents of the documents to be given by a person who has himself seen it.
(3) The photocopy sought to be produced before Court was a copy of a short message received on a screen of a mobile phone. Unless the original message of that copy, received on the screen of the mobile phone, is admissible in evidence, the said photocopy could not be regarded as evidence. Thus, the primary issue before Court was to determine whether the message received on the screen of a mobile phone falls within the meaning of a “document”, under the Evidence Ordinance.
(4) The term document in Section 3 of the Evidence Ordinance is defined as “any matter expressed or described upon any substance by means of letters, figures, or marks or by more than one of those means, intended to be used, or which may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter”.
(5) Citing the case of Abubakhar Vs. Queen (54 NLR 566), and the case of In re S.A. Wickramasinghe (55 NLR 511), the judge observed “that the Courts in this country had been making efforts to widen the scope of the meaning given to the word “Document” relying upon the interpretation referred to in Section 3 of the Evidence Ordinance.
(6) Thus, it is evident that for some time Courts in this country were very much inclined to admit and rely upon the evidence which have been generated with the assistance of technology, despite the fact that such evidence did not appear on a surface similar to a sheet of paper.
(7) In the course of the judgment, Judge Chitrasiri also made an important observation departing from the decision made in the Supreme Court case, Benwell vs. Republic of Sri Lanka-[1979] (2) Sri LR 194, where it was that computer generated evidence is not admissible under section of the Evidence Ordinance of Sri Lanka.
(8) The Commercial High Court Judge held that “the issue in the action under consideration does not refer to a document generated through a computer, as in the case of Benwell Vs. Republic of Sri Lanka.
(9) Therefore the judge held that “the question to be decided in this instance could easily be distinguished from the judgment by Justice Collin Thome”. Therefore, “this Court is inclined to follow the decisions pronounced in the aforesaid cases namely Abubaker vs. Queen and in re S.A. Wickramasinghe. Thus, it is my opinion that the message, received on the screen of a mobile phone which had been typed by another person from a different point and was sent with the assistance of technology, could be admitted in evidence. In the circumstances, I decide that the original message received by a mobile phone should be considered as admissible evidence in terms of the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance of 1895”.
(10)The Judge proceeded to consider whether the short messages that is to be produced in evidence could be allowed to be led in evidence under the provisions of the Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006.
(11)Citing Section 21(2) of the Electronic Transactions Act and the definition of data message” “electronic document” “electronic record” and “communication” the Judge held that the Interpretations referred to in the Act “would definitely include a SMS message under Section 21 of the Act”. Therefore, the judge held that “It is my opinion that a short message commonly described as SMS falls within the scope of the Electronic Transaction Act and therefore the evidence sought to be produced by the plaintiff could easily be admitted in evidence under Section 21 of the said Act No. 19 of 2006”.
(12)However the judge noted that “The learned Counsel for the defendant has argued that the provisions of the Electronic Transaction Act cannot be invoked in this instance since the alleged SMS messages were not compiled or received in the course of business, trade or profession or other regularly conducted activity”.
However the judge held that he is “not inclined to accept this argument since the sole basis of this action depended upon an agreement, which is purely in the nature of a commercial activity.
Moreover, the SMS messages in question had been exchanged between the parties whilst acting under the terms and conditions contained in the said business agreement”.
(13)In the circumstances, it was held that the SMS messages sought to be produced in this instance could be admitted in evidence even in
terms of the provisions contained in the Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006”.
(14)The Judge also referred to the exclusionary clause in Section 21(1) of the Electronic Transaction Act, wherein it is stated that; “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Evidence Ordinance or any other written law, the following provisions of this Section shall be applicable for the purposes of this Act.”.
(15)The Judge also sought to ascertain whether the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance could be made use of in this instance. The judge
held that “basis on which I have relied upon the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance purely depends on the interpretation given to the
word “document””.
(16)The Judge Held that there is no ontradiction between the two (i.e the Evidence Ordinance and the Electronic Transactions Act) for me to disregard the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance as far as the instant issue is concerned. Thus, it is my opinion that this Court is ree to make use of either provision. [i.e either the Provisions of the Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006 or the Evidence Ordinance].
(17)However, as explained before, this Court could have admitted the contents of not only short messages but also a document appearing
on a computer screen, relying upon the interpretation referred to in the Evidence Ordinance enacted as far back as 1895, even without recourse to the said Electronic Transaction Act. This view had been expressed on the same line in the cases of Abubhakar Vs. A.G. and In re S.A.Wickramasinghe relying upon the said interpretation to the word “document” in the Evidence Ordinance. Accordingly, the images appearing on any substance should be allowed as evidence according to the circumstances of each case.
(18)However, the application before Court was to admit a “photocopy” of the said message received by a mobile telephone. It was held by the Judge that “it is the duty of the plaintiff to prove the relevant photocopy in terms of section 63 of the evidence ordinance. Subject to the aforesaid condition referred to in Section 63 of the Evidence Ordinance, the documents marked X17to X53 and X55 to X57 are allowed to be marked and produced in evidence”, the judge concluded.
Source : IT Pro
Surangani-Remix by Passan : Download :
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Here is one of the perfect mix by passan liyanage.
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Bunantho - Shani Video
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Bunantho - Shani
MoocherHunter (WIFI Audit)
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MoocherHunter™ identifies the location of an 802.11-based wireless moocher or hacker by the traffic they send across the network. If they want to mooch from you or use your wireless network for illegal purposes (e.g. warez downloading or illegal filesharing), then they have no choice but to reveal themselves by sending traffic across in order to accomplish their objectives. MoocherHunter™ enables the owner of the wireless network to detect traffic from this unauthorized wireless client (using either MoocherHunter™’s Passive or Active mode) and enables the owner, armed with a laptop and directional antenna, to isolate and track down the source.
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How do Girls download Videos from Internet???
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lankadissent.com is hacked!
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Oh god! big news , I saw this news few weeks back on lankaenews and lankadissent.com, Both sites are bit fast with news and so aggressive when it come to news reporting. Usually news reporter do have own political views and own political expectations, but anyway thats not my concern lankadissent which is hosted on the same server as mine. This is what they says.
This is how the FMM has repeated the allegation initially made by Lanka Dissent:
“The Defence Ministry recently set up an electronic media observation unit at a building adjacent to Standard Chartered Bank in front of the President’s House in Colombo to monitor websites reporting on the situation in Sri Lanka. LD learns through reliable sources that this particular unit staffed with electronic and IT experts, is experimenting on how to disrupt websites.” - source defence.lk
Many people don’t have a clue how website hacking work and how web server n hosting works. so this is kind of big news that ” Government is trying to hack news website ” well news is no longer exist but I saw it while it was there. Normally when his website got hacked professional webmaster would go trough logs or request them from hosting server second step will be tracking IP range and address owners. If government is trying to hack their site they should know the IP range and all the information so why don’t they publish them when it come to high tech thing like that get some evidence its better than making a big drama.
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Zitahli Resorts and Spa Kuda-Funafaru is a 5 star deluxe property located on the idyllic Noonu Atoll in maldives. This is the latest project from the company that i was working before, due to my vacation trip to new zealand I missed this project, resort will be open in few days for guests. I am sad that I missed this project.:(
Tags: hotels, Kuda Funafaru, Kudafunafaru, luxury, resorts, Zitahli
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swimming pool in Jaffna
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Kuda Funafaru Resort and Spa
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Raaje Dhekilan Annashaay -IRAJ & Shani
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Latest Dhivehi song made by iraj @ illnoize Studio.
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