The government will introduce modern legislation to replace the existing Evidence Act of 1893, drawing on the Australian model, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has announced.
“The current Evidence Act of Guyana is the 1893 Evidence Act of the United Kingdom. Nothing that was relevant in 1893 can be relevant now,” Nandlall posited on Tuesday during his programme “Issues in the News”.
He explained that in this era of digitisation and rapid technological advancements where records are stored in vastly different ways, “a modern Evidence Act must embrace this new reality.”
“You prove a case in courts of law, in tribunals of law, in arbitrations, and in almost every judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative organs, you prove a case by way of evidence. What is evidence? Evidence is materials, the way materials are processed now. The way information is stored now, is radically different from how it used to be stored 30-40 years ago…so a new Evidence Act is long required,” Nandlall explained.
He said the bill is currently in draft and will be considered by Cabinet before being released for public feedback.
Discover more from INews Guyana
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
