(1) Where any law provides that documents, records or information shall be retained for any specific period, then, that requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such documents, records or information are retained in the electronic form, if—
(a) the information contained therein remains accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference;
(b) the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent or received, or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent accurately the information originally generated, sent or received;
(c) the details which will facilitate the identification of the origin, destination, date and time of dispatch or receipt of such electronic record are available in the electronic record.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 7
Section 7 governs the retention of electronic records, providing that any statutory requirement to retain documents, records, or information for a specified period is satisfied if retained in electronic form, provided the format remains accessible, maintains original fidelity, and preserves transmission metadata.
In corporate and regulatory compliance audits, verify that enterprise archiving software retains email transmission headers and cryptographic timestamps alongside message bodies; failure to preserve origin-destination metadata invalidates statutory retention compliance under Section 7.