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Filing a chat exhibit

The certificate and the exhibit are one half of it. The other half is the mechanics — what is listed, what is served, what physically reaches the court, and when.

What actually goes on the file

For a chat exhibit there are four things, and they travel together:

• The printed exhibit — the transcript in readable form, paginated and with every entry numbered so it can be cited.
• The certificate in the form of the Schedule to Section 63(4), Part A and Part B, signed and dated.
• The native electronic record — the export itself, as a file, on the medium the court accepts.
• The attachments, if any, as files, with a manifest listing each one and its hash.

The listing of documents should describe them as what they are. “WhatsApp chat between the plaintiff and the defendant dated ___ to ___, exported on ___, SHA-256 ___” identifies a record. “Copy of WhatsApp chat” identifies nothing, and invites the question of which copy.

When the certificate is filed

File it with the record. In Arjun Panditrao Khotkar (2020) the Supreme Court held the certificate mandatory for secondary electronic evidence and spent much of the judgment on the position of a party who had not filed one in time. Nothing is gained by putting yourself in that position when the certificate can simply accompany the document.

If the certificate is being filed later — because the deponent was unavailable, or because the record was produced by another party — that is an application, on facts, and it is an argument you have to win before the evidence is of any use to you.

Getting the file to the court

• Ask what the court accepts. Practice varies: a pen drive, a CD, an e-filing upload. Where filing is electronic, the uploaded file must be the certified file — not a re-saved or converted version, which will not match the hash.
• Label the medium with the case number, the document description and the hash of the file on it.
• Do not put anything else on it. One record, one medium, is cleaner than a drive with three unrelated folders on it.
• Keep a duplicate and note where the certified original is held.

Serving the other side

Serve the same thing you filed: the exhibit, the certificate, and the file. A party who receives only a printout cannot recompute the hash, which means they cannot verify the record — and a record that could not be verified is one they will invite the court to disregard, with some justice.

It is also the stronger position tactically. An opponent handed the file, the hash and the commands to check it has been given nothing to complain about, and has to argue about what the conversation means rather than about how it was produced.

Marking and citing

• Number every entry in the transcript and keep the numbering fixed. A pleading that says “entry 412” is checkable; one that says “the message of 14 March” is not, if there were nine that day.
• Reference attachments both ways — from the entry to the file and from the file back to the entry. See producing photographs and voice notes.
• Do not renumber between the filed copy and the served copy. It happens, and it costs an afternoon of cross-examination.

Keep the source available

The device the export came from should remain available and unaltered for as long as the record is in issue. A court that genuinely doubts a chat may want the handset examined, and a phone that was traded in six months ago cannot be produced. This is also why the export should be taken early rather than at the door of the court.

The redaction trap

Redacting the transcript changes the file, which changes the hash, which breaks the certificate. If something must be redacted, certify the record as it is and produce the redacted version as a separate, disclosed document. Group chats deals with this at length, because it is where the question usually arises.

Before it leaves the office

1. Recompute the hash of the file you are about to file, and check it against the certificate.
2. Check Part A is signed by the right person and Part B is completed — not left blank “for later”.
3. Check the exhibit’s own page count and numbering match the copy being served.
4. Read the exhibit once as if you were the other side. The challenge checklist is written for exactly that pass.

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This guide explains procedure and states the law as we understand it. It is not legal advice, and Aarohan Enterprises is not a law firm. Whether a court admits a particular record, and what weight it gives it, is for that court to decide. Have an advocate settle anything you intend to file.