Once a compact disk containing video recording is produced in accordance with the requirement of Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act it becomes an admissible piece of evidence just like any document, the Supreme Court observed in Kailas s/o Bajirao Pawar v. State of Maharashtra [2025 INSC 1117].
The contents of the video on it become equivalent to the contents of a document and that can be seen and heard by the court to draw appropriate inferences.
The law does not prescribe the contents of the video need to be reduced to a transcript through the witness testimony to make the contents admissible.
The court must form its opinion about the contents of the compact disk without requiring the witness describe everything in the video in his deposition.
In short, a witness’s verbal narration of the video is not necessary to make the contents admissible if the evidence is properly authenticated under Indian Evidence Act.
