Rajya Sabha passes bill to recognize digital bank records as evidence

The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Bankers’ Books Evidence Bill, 2026, clearing the way for electronic and digital records maintained by banks to be recognized as admissible evidence in legal proceedings and seeking to replace a 135-year-old law built around paper-based banking.

The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 3 August and passed on 5 August, seeks to repeal and replace the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891, which was enacted when banking records were predominantly maintained in physical form.

“The Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891, was designed for a paper-based banking system and no longer reflects today’s digital reality. With India’s rapid digitalization, banking and financial transactions have become increasingly phone-driven and electronic. The existing law requires paper-based certified records in legal proceedings, creating challenges for banks and raising privacy concerns. The Bankers’ Books Evidence Bill, 2026 aims to modernise the legal framework for banking in a digitally driven India,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha.

Digital records, court-ready

Under the bill, an electronic or digital record of a banker’s book, or a copy of such a record, would be admissible, valid and legally enforceable as evidence, subject to prescribed conditions.

The electronic or digital record must be a true copy of the relevant entry or information and must correctly represent, or be appropriately derived from, the underlying record. The bill also requires that no unauthorized alteration of data is observed or detected and that there is no tampering with the system or other event that could affect the integrity or accuracy of the record.

The change is significant for banks as a growing share of transactions, account records and customer interactions are generated and maintained electronically. The government has argued that the 1891 law no longer adequately reflects how banking records are created, stored and accessed in a digitally driven financial system.

The proposed framework therefore seeks to address the evidentiary gap created by the shift from physical bank books to electronic records, while setting conditions intended to establish the authenticity and integrity of those records.

Safeguards stay

The bill retains safeguards governing the production of bankers’ books in court proceedings. Under the existing law, an officer of a bank cannot ordinarily be compelled to produce a banker’s book in a proceeding to which the bank is not a party, nor can an officer be required to appear as a witness merely to prove matters, transactions or accounts recorded in the books.

Such production or appearance can be ordered by a court or judge for a special cause. The new bill provides greater clarity on what would constitute such a special cause.

This includes circumstances where the accuracy or genuineness of an entry or information is doubtful, where an event indicates an interruption in the regular or ordinary manner of record keeping, or where a bank fails to comply with a court order relating to inspection of its books.

The bill also retains the existing application of the law to banking entities and post office savings banks and money order offices. However, it gives the central government the power to extend the provisions to any entity or class of entities operating in the financial sector through notification.

The government may, through such notification, prescribe conditions, exceptions or modifications while extending the law to other financial-sector entities.

The passage of the bill comes as banking transactions and record-keeping have moved substantially from paper-based processes to electronic platforms. By giving digital banking records a clearer evidentiary status, the new framework is aimed at reducing dependence on physical bank books and documents in judicial proceedings while retaining safeguards around their authenticity and integrity.