The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has directed a woman to provide her voice sample to verify her estranged husband’s allegation of an extra-marital affair, observing that electronic evidence is increasingly supplanting traditional forms of proof in legal proceedings.
Justice Shailesh Brahme, delivering the order on May 9, noted that although the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act does not explicitly empower courts to compel voice samples, the nature of the proceedings—being both quasi-civil and quasi-criminal—warrants such a direction.
The decision came on a plea filed by a man seeking verification of voice recordings he submitted to the family court to substantiate claims of his wife’s alleged affair. The woman had contested the authenticity of the recordings, claiming the voice was not hers and that the memory card and CD presented by her husband were inadmissible since the original mobile phone was not produced.
The High Court, however, ruled that such objections could be addressed at the trial stage. “Due to the advent of technology, electronic evidence is replacing conventional evidence, and hence, there is a need to invest more powers to a magistrate who is a fact-finding authority,” Justice Brahme remarked.
The case arose after the woman filed a domestic violence complaint against her husband and in-laws, alleging harassment under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. In his defence, the husband produced the recordings, alleging they captured conversations between his wife and her alleged paramour.
A magistrate’s court at Parner in Ahilyanagar district had earlier rejected the husband’s request for a voice sample, leading him to approach the High Court. Quashing the magistrate’s February 2024 order, the High Court directed the woman to submit her voice sample within three weeks for forensic analysis.
Justice Brahme also clarified that parties in domestic violence proceedings do not occupy the roles of informant and accused as defined under conventional criminal law, as the dispute arises within a domestic relationship.
The voice sample will now be sent to a forensic laboratory to verify its consistency with the recordings submitted by the husband.
