AN EXAMINATION OF RELEVANCY AND ADMISSIBILITY OF ELECTRONICALLY GENERATED EVIDENCE UNDER THE EVIDENCE ACT 2011

ABSTRACT This long essay provided an Examination of Relevancy and Admissibility of Electronically Generated Evidence under the Evidence Act, 2011. This research therefore aimed at streamlining some of the reforms or cumbersome provisions of the Act. It has been acknowledged that the law of Evidence has laid down conditions that must be met before an electronically generated evidence can be admitted by the Court. The challenge which this research was to unravel the difficulties faced by the Courts in the usage of relevancy and admissibility rules of electronically generated evidence as laid down in Section 84. To obtain this information, the study adopted doctrinal legal research methodology. Through research in text books, journals, statutes and cases, this long essay finds that the admissibility of electronic evidence is bedeviled with a lot of challenges: one of which is the technicality that results from the mandatory requirement of producing an authentication certificate. This research examined various other challenges. This paper concluded that the provisions of the Evidence Act on admissibility of electronically generated evidence is inadequate and therefore there is the need to understudy other jurisdictions in order to adequately confront the challenges discussed. This research recommends that the law should be amended to limit the mandatory applicability of Section 84(4) only in situations where the part seeking to tender the evidence is in control of the device that produced the document.