Kerala HC appoints amicus curiae to formulate guidelines for ensuring the safety of electronic documents

The Kerala High Court on Monday appointed advocate Renjith B Marar as amicus curiae to help the court in formulating guidelines to ensure the safety of electronic documents in judicial custody.

The issue came to the notice of the court while it was considering a plea moved by the survivor in the 2017 actress assault case alleging foul play in the investigation in the case in which actor Dileep is a key accused.

In her plea she  alleged that against all ethical and legal norms, the advocates representing Dileep interfered with the administration of justice by tampering with evidence and illegally influencing material witnesses.

The plea also pointed out  that evidence in this regard has already been published in the media and  the fundamental right of the petitioner to a fair trial and her right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution were violated.

She also pointed out that the visuals of the assault suffered by the petitioner were leaked even though they were stored in a memory card which was in the custody of the court which is conducting the trial in the case.

"The illegal access tampering transmission of the contents of the memory card while it is in the custody of the court also attracts offenses punishable under Section 201, 204 of the Indian Penal Code and also section 67A of the Information Technology Act 2000 which are cognizable offenses to be investigated by the police," the plea said.

The survivor sought the intervention of the High Court to ensure a fair and impartial investigation and trial.

Hearing the plea the court pointed out that unlike most other cases, the memory card is the direct evidence in this case and, therefore, appointed Marar as amicus curiae to suggest guidelines to ensure the safety of electronic documents in judicial custody.