How Photo and Video can be Evidence in DV cases

An outward sign or something that is legally submitted to a court to support a claim for a matter of truth, especially an individual who willfully confesses to a crime and testifies against his or her co-conspirators.

The body of facts or information that can be used to determine whether a belief or proposition is valid. Evidence is a necessary aspect of any legal matter because every allegation has to be to get supported by any evidence otherwise that allegation gets dismissed. The word ‘evidence’ comes from the Latin phrase ‘Evidens Evidere,’ which means ‘plain, apparent, or notorious state of the evidence.

In India, domestic violence between married spouses is a very common issue, at some stage of a married relationship, a woman usually suffers thru domestic abuse that has been done by her husband. The Safeguarding of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005 is a beneficiary law that aims to protect the rights of wives. To obtain any relief under the said Act, a wife must satisfy and prove before the Court that she is an aggrieved person as defined in Section 2(a) of the Domestic Violence Act and that she has been the victim of domestic abuse as defined in Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act.

The problem that arises here is how to support your allegation thru evidence, a woman in the case of domestic abuse usually records the video or captures the picture in a discreet manner or in a way so that they won’t get caught by their husband, as they suffer a mental and physical fear.

So the question arises here: Can a photo or video be considered a piece of evidence in a domestic violence case?

For instance, any violence that has been done to the wife by her husband or the other family members and has been recorded or captured in a discreet manner or by another person for the sake of proof to support the accusation in the court of law. But to support your proof in the domestic violence case you have to comply with the section 65(B) of the Evidence Act, which says ‘any person has a media which is in the form electronic record that is printed on paper, stored, recorded, or copied in optical or magnetic media produced by a computer or records videos or photos thru the phone or any other electronic device and wants to present it as a piece of evidence in the court, then that person who is captured that evidence has to submit the self-declaration notice, certifying that I am the concerned person who has captured the proof in a phone or electronic device. Then only the court can pass the order considering that proof as valid evidence under the law.

So if any person suffers the domestic abuse against their partner or other family members and has a recorded media with them, then you can present it as proof of evidence in the court to support your case at its best

More than a 10 million cases of domestic violence have been registered in a decade and women being subject to cruelty and torture or sexual abuse under the Domestic Violence Act

Lead India stands for the rights of women and the victims of domestic abuse and further believes in justice getting delivered in time for their interest