Lok Sabha Question No. 4485 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-20
Subject: Notification of State and Central Forensic Science Laboratories
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Shahu Shahaji Chhatrapati

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4485

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 20.08.2025

## NOTIFICATION OF STATE AND CENTRAL FORENSIC SCIENCE LABORATORIES

## 4485. SHRI SHAHU SHAHAJI CHHATRAPATI:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  notified  all  State  and  Central  Forensic  Science  Laboratories  as 'Examiners of Electronic Evidence' under Section 79A of the IT Act, 2000 and if so, the details of the notified laboratories;
- (b) whether all forensic labs have not been notified under Section 79A and if so, the reasons for the delay in their notification;
- (c) the details of criteria or standards used by the Government to notify a lab as an 'Examiner of Electronic Evidence' under Section 79A of the IT Act;
- (d) whether the Government is considering amending the IT Act, 2000 to include or recognize private forensic laboratories as Examiners of Electronic Evidence; and
- (e)  the  details  of  measures  being  taken  to  ensure  adequate  geographical  and  institutional  coverage  of notified Examiners of Electronic Evidence across the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a)  to  (e):    As  per  the  section  79A  of  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  (IT  Act,  2000),  the  Central Government may, for the purposes of providing expert opinion on electronic form evidence before any court or other authority specify, by notification in the Official Gazette, any Department, body or agency of the Central Government or a State Government as an Examiner of Electronic Evidence. So far, 18 laboratories from the Central and State Governments have been notified as examiner of electronic evidence. The complete list of notified labs as Examiner of Electronic Evidence is provided at Annexure-I

The criteria and standards for notification are laid down in the scheme formulated by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which inter-alia, includes:

- (i.) Availability of a proper laboratory quality management system based on international standards of the International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC 17025) (Standard on general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories) and  reasonable  experience  to  demonstrate  their  overall  competency  and  expert  opinion  on  digital evidence.
- (ii.) Practices as defined in ISO/IEC 27037 (A Standard on Information technology - Security techniques Guidelines for identification, collection, acquisition and preservation of digital evidence).
- (iii.) Availability  of  technical,  skilled  professional  manpower  in  digital  forensics,  licensed  tools  and equipment, availability of suitable environment to carry out such evaluation.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has developed a scheme for notification of Examiner of Electronic Evidence which includes submission of application followed by assessment of lab. The application form for the purpose is available on MeitY website. Any applicant department, body or agency of the Central Government or a State Government complying with the criteria laid down in the scheme may submit the requisite application.

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Annexure-I

## List of forensic science laboratories notified as Examiner of Electronic Evidence under Section 79A of IT Act 2000

1. Computer  Forensic  Division,  Goa  Forensic  Science  Laboratory,  Goa  Police Department, Goa
2. Cyber Forensics & Digital Evidence Examiners Laboratory (CF&DEEL), Kolkata -West Bengal
3. Cyber Forensic Division, State Forensics Science Laboratory (SFSL), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
4. Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL),  Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh
5. Digital  Forensic  Laboratory,  Cyber  Defence  Center,  National  Forensic  Sciences University (NFSU), Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat
6. Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat
7. Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL), Surat, Gujarat
8. Cyber Forensic Laboratory, Air Force Cyber Group, New Delhi
9. Cyber Forensic Laboratory, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTIn), New Delhi
10. Cyber Forensics Laboratory, Navy Cyber Group, New Delhi
11. Cyber Forensic Laboratory, Army Cyber Group, New Delhi
12. Computer  Forensic  and  Data  Mining  Laboratory,  Serious  Fraud  Investigation Office, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, New Delhi
13. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, Rohini, New Delhi
14. Forensic Wing Lab, Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA), New Delhi
15. State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL), Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Police Department, Bangalore, Karnataka
16. Forensics Science Department, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
17. Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, Telangana
18. Telangana State Forensic Science Laboratory (TSFSL), Hyderabad, Telangana

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