India, Aug. 10 -- The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill, 2026, replacing a 135-year-old British-era statute with a legal framework that treats electronic, digital, virtual and cloud-stored bank records as admissible and enforceable evidence in court.

The Bill, moved by the finance ministry, has now cleared both Houses of Parliament. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 3 and passed on August 5.

The law it replaces - the Bankers' Books Evidence Act of 1891 - was drafted for a world of physical ledgers. The first screen would not be invented for another six years, and the electronic revolution was still decades away at the time.

The Act, which has since been amended several times as India stepped into ...