All issues › Volume 1, Issue 1, July – August 2026
Beyond the Match Score: Admissibility, Reliability and Fair-Trial Safeguards for Facial Recognition Evidence under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023
Assistant Professor, School of Law, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract
Facial recognition technology is increasingly used to generate investigative leads, yet Indian evidence law does not contain a facial-recognition-specific rule of admissibility or weight. This article asks how a police-generated candidate or match report should be treated under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), constitutional fair-trial guarantees, and the emerging data- and AI-governance framework. It uses structured doctrinal analysis of legislation, leading Indian judgments on electronic and expert evidence, official Indian AI policy, and selected comparative authorities. The analysis separates four questions often collapsed in practice: lawful collection, electronic-record authenticity, scientific reliability, and probative weight. Section 63 BSA can authenticate a computer output and its provenance; it does not demonstrate that a facial-recognition model is valid for the deployed population, that the selected threshold is appropriate, or that a candidate is the accused. Section 39 makes expert opinion relevant, but leaves courts to evaluate methodology and grounds. Law-enforcement processing may also fall within exemptions in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, while the India AI Governance Guidelines remain principle-based. The article proposes the MATCH protocol: Mandate the use, Audit performance, Trace the complete inference, enable Challenge, and require Human verification plus independent corroboration. Under this approach, an unexplained match score is an investigative lead, not self-proving identity and not a sufficient basis for conviction. The protocol can be implemented through procurement conditions, investigation manuals, disclosure orders, expert-evidence practice and judicial directions without waiting for a comprehensive AI statute.
Keywords: facial recognition, electronic evidence, criminal procedure, fair trial, algorithmic accountability, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam
How to cite
Kalpana, S. (2026). Beyond the Match Score: Admissibility, Reliability and Fair-Trial Safeguards for Facial Recognition Evidence under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Imaginex International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Reviews, 1(1), 30–41.