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WhatsApp evidence in a commercial dispute

A great deal of Indian business is now transacted entirely by message: the order, the rate, the delivery, the dispute and the settlement. When it goes wrong, the conversation is not corroboration of the contract — it frequently is the contract.

What the conversation is being asked to establish

• Formation. The order, the quantity, the rate, the delivery date — agreed in messages, with no signed contract anywhere.
• Variation. Almost always oral or by message, and almost always the thing in dispute. A written contract varied by six weeks of messages is an ordinary commercial situation.
• Performance. Dispatch confirmations, lorry receipt photographs, delivery acknowledgments, site photographs, complaints about quality made or not made at the time.
• Admissions of dues. Reconciliation exchanges, statements of account sent and not disputed, promises to pay.
• Repudiation and the date of breach, which fixes limitation and quantum.
• Agency and authority — who was dealing for whom, and whether the other side treated that person as authorised.
• An arbitration clause, where the terms were exchanged by message.

The question these disputes actually turn on

Not admissibility. It is whether the exchange shows a concluded bargain or a negotiation, and whether the person messaging had authority to bind the party. Both are answered from the conversation as a whole rather than from the helpful lines — which is the practical reason to produce the whole of it.

It follows that a complete certified record is worth much more than an extract in a commercial matter specifically. The other side will produce the rest of the thread, and a bargain that looked concluded in four messages often looks conditional in forty.

Business accounts and who was speaking

• WhatsApp Business accounts export the same way as personal ones. Say in the certificate particulars that the account was a business account and identify the number.
• Employees’ devices. The employee who held the phone is the right deponent, and the certificate should say in what capacity they held it. Who signs Part A.
• Departures. When the employee who conducted the dealing leaves, the conversation frequently leaves with them. Export the material threads while the person and the device are still available — this is the commonest way a good commercial record is lost.
• Trade and coordination groups. Full of third parties and unrelated business. Group chats deals with attribution and with redaction, which cannot be done to the certified file itself.

Producing it in a commercial matter

1. Export the full thread with media. Purchase orders, invoices, lorry receipts and photographs are the substance in most of these disputes, and a media-free export loses them entirely.
2. Hash each attachment separately as well as the archive, so one invoice can be produced and verified on its own. Producing media.
3. Number every entry, and plead by entry number. In a document-heavy commercial file this is the difference between an exhibit that gets used and one that gets skimmed.
4. Reconcile the conversation to the paper. Every invoice discussed should be in the bundle; every payment referred to should be in the ledger.
5. File the certificate and the native file, and serve the same: filing a chat exhibit.

Where the argument usually goes

Expect the other side to say the messages were negotiation, that the person messaging had no authority, that the extract omits the qualification, or that the conversation was with a different entity in the group. A complete, certified, numbered record answers the first and third directly, and gives the court the material to decide the second. It cannot answer the objection that a text file can be typed — nothing can, entirely — but a native file the other side can hash themselves takes most of the force out of it. See are chats valid evidence.

Where the dispute is a dishonoured cheque rather than the dealing behind it, see cheque bounce proceedings.

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.