Section 1 Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023: Short title, application and commencement

Section 1 of Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023: Short title, application and commencement

Official Bare Act Text

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(1) This Act may be called the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.

(2) 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.

(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

Statutory Defined Terms in this Section: (Click any term for official legal definition)

Court Sec 2(1)(a)

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 1

The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 establishes a modernized statutory framework governing the admissibility, relevancy, and evaluation of evidence across all judicial proceedings in India, repealing and replacing the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.

Evidentiary Admissibility Standard: Sub-section (2) defines the universal territorial and institutional jurisdiction of the Adhiniyam, extending its evidentiary mandates to all judicial proceedings in or before any Court, expressly encompassing Courts-martial convened under military law.
Core Legal Standard: However, the legislature enacted two strict statutory exemptions: affidavits presented to any Court or officer, and proceedings conducted before an arbitrator.
Procedural Mechanism: Affidavits are governed independently by procedural codes—principally Order XIX of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and Section 333 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023—because an affidavit is a unilateral declaration of the deponent rather than testimony subjected to contemporaneous viva voce cross-examination.

Similarly, arbitral proceedings are exempted to preserve party autonomy under Section 19(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, which frees arbitral tribunals from the technical rules of evidence.

Under sub-section (3), the Central Government appointed July 1, 2024 as the official date of statutory commencement. As procedural legislation, rules of evidence operate retrospectively on pending inquiries and trials unless substantive vested rights are impaired, but criminal prosecutions instituted prior to the notification date remain guided by the transition provisions of Section 531 of the BNSS and settled saving principles.

Key Landmark Precedents:

Bareilly Electricity Supply Co. Ltd. v. The Workmen (AIR 1972 SC 330): The Supreme Court held that while the technical rules of evidence do not apply to domestic tribunals or affidavits, tribunals must nevertheless respect fundamental principles of natural justice and fair play before accepting documentary assertions as proved.
Union of India v. Sukumar Pyne (AIR 1966 SC 1206): Affirmed that statutory alterations in procedural and evidentiary law operate retrospectively and govern all pending judicial proceedings, as no litigant holds a vested right in procedural technicalities.

Legal Commentary:

Section 1 establishes the operational threshold for trial courts. Judicial officers and criminal practitioners must observe that where an inquiry is purely administrative or preliminary, technical evidentiary exclusionary rules do not attach; however, once a matter constitutes a 'judicial proceeding' before a Magistrate or Sessions Judge, strict adherence to the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam is an indispensable requirement of due process.