INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Vijayendra Pratap Singh, Asif Ahmed, Tanmay Sharma and Bhanu Jindal, AZB & Partners
mesne profits or damages, or annual net prof - its. After such an investigation/inspection, the commissioner must reduce their evidence into writing and, together with their report, submit this to the court. Such commissioners also have the power to take evidence from a witness by examination on interrogatories or otherwise. 2.3 Obtaining Disclosure of Documents and Evidence From Third Parties Criminal Proceedings As stated in 2.1 Disclosure of Defendants’ Assets , under Section 94 BNSS a court or the police may summon any person to produce any document, communication device containing digital evidence or thing necessary for inves - tigation or trial. The Section is not limited to obtaining disclosure from an accused person alone but can be used to seek a document or thing relevant for investigation from any person in whose possession or power such document or thing is believed to be. Civil Proceedings Further, under the CPC, a court has broad pow - ers to seek production of any document or evidence from any party, either on its own or pursuant to an application filed by a claimant in this regard. One notable change regarding pro - duction of documents is that under the newly enacted BSA the definition of the word “docu- ment” has been expanded to include: • electronic or digital records stored in emails; • server logs; • documents on a computer; • messages; • websites; • the cloud; • location evidence; and • voicemail messages stored on digital devices.
Similarly, the definition of the word “evidence” has also been expanded to include any informa - tion given electronically. This is a major amend - ment introduced by the BSA. 2.4 Procedural Orders Under the CPC, a claimant seeking a temporary injunction (such as to preserve any property or prevent any further injury) may be granted an ex parte injunction if the court believes that the delay in notifying the other party may defeat the purpose of the injunction sought. However, the claimant will be required to inform the opposite party of this and to send all documents forthwith. Such an injunction is also liable to be vacated upon an application filed by the opposite party if the claimant has knowingly made a false or mis - leading statement in its application for the pur - pose of obtaining such an injunction. The CPC also states that, once such an ex parte interim injunction is granted, the court is required to hear and dispose of the application of the claimant for injunction within 30 days of passing the interim order. 2.5 Criminal Redress Victims of fraudulent acts or fraud have two avenues through which they can seek redress against perpetrators: • initiation of criminal proceedings; or • the filing of a civil suit. The victim can also pursue both civil and crimi - nal remedies simultaneously for the same cause of action. Such proceedings take place before different courts and hence do not impact on the speed at which they are disposed. However, to initiate criminal proceedings, the victim must ensure that criminal offences are sufficiently made out in the cause of action, as Indian courts
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