Section 48Part 4 — Civil proceedings
Computers
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48. (1) In any civil proceedings a statement contained in a document produced by a computer is, subject to Rules of Court, admissible as evidence of any fact stated therein of which direct oral evidence would be admissible, if it is shown —
that the document containing the statement was produced by the computer during a period over which the computer was used regularly to store and process information for the purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that period, whether for profit or not, by any person;
that over that period there was regularly supplied to the computer in the ordinary course of those activities information of the kind contained in the statement or of the kind from which the information so contained is derived;
that throughout the material part of that period the computer was operating properly or, if not, that any respect in which it was not operating properly Section 49 Evidence Act (2021 Revision) Page 48 Revised as at 31st December, 2020 c or was out of operation during that part of that period was not such as to affect the production of the document or the accuracy of its contents; and
that the information contained in the statement reproduces or is derived from information supplied to the computer in the ordinary course of those activities.
In any civil proceedings where it is desired to give a statement in evidence by virtue of this section, a certificate —
identifying the document containing the statement and describing the manner in which it was produced;
giving such particulars of any device involved in the production of that document as may be appropriate for the purpose of showing that the document was produced by a computer; and
dealing with any of the matters to which the conditions mentioned in subsection (1) relate, and purporting to be signed by a person occupying a responsible position with relation to the operation of the relevant device or the management of the relevant activities (whichever is appropriate) shall be evidence of any matter stated therein; and for the purposes of this subsection it is sufficient for a matter to be stated to the best of the knowledge and belief of the person stating it.
For the purposes of this Act —
information is taken to be supplied to a computer if it is supplied thereto in any appropriate form and whether it is so supplied directly or (with or without human intervention) by means of any appropriate equipment; and
where, in the course of activities carried on by any individual or body, information is supplied with a view to its being stored or processed for the purposes of those activities by a computer operated otherwise than in the course of those activities.
Any reference to information being derived from other information is a reference to its being derived therefrom by calculation, comparison or any other process.