Question

The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 is not applicable in which case?

• A. Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
• B. National Company Law Tribunal
• C. Arbitral Tribunal
• D. National Green Tribunal

Hint:

"Evidence Law vs. Arbitration": Arbitrators have procedural flexibility! They are NOT bound by the strict rules of the Evidence Act or the new BSA.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Courts and most statutory tribunals exist to exercise the judicial power of the State, and that is exactly why an evidence code is written for them. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 is meant to govern how facts are proved before such bodies, so its language speaks of "judicial proceedings in or before any Court."

An arbitral tribunal sits in a different category altogether. Parties agree privately to send their dispute to arbitration, and the whole point of that choice is speed and flexibility rather than a rigid, court-style enquiry. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 recognises this by freeing the tribunal from the technical rules of evidence, so it can decide on the material the parties place before it without being tied down by strict admissibility rules.

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Green Tribunal, by contrast, are statutory adjudicators created to decide disputes in the public interest, using State-conferred judicial power, and they continue to follow the ordinary evidentiary approach even where their own procedure is somewhat simplified.

Since the arbitral tribunal alone stands outside this framework by virtue of its private, consensual origin, it is the forum where the Act has no application.
\[ \boxed{\text{Arbitral Tribunal}} \]

Answer 2

Another way to answer this is to ask a single question for each forum: does the word "Court" in Section 1(2) of the BSA, 2023 reasonably stretch to cover it, given how that forum gets its power to decide?

1. (A) Income Tax Appellate Tribunal: It gets its power from a statute enacted by Parliament and decides tax disputes using the judicial authority the State has handed it. That fits comfortably within the sense of "Court" the Act uses. Not the answer.
2. (B) National Company Law Tribunal: Same reasoning applies. It is a statutory body exercising the judicial power of the State over company and insolvency matters, so it falls inside the scope of "Court" for evidentiary purposes. Not the answer.
3. (C) Arbitral Tribunal: Here the source of power is different. An arbitral tribunal exists only because the parties to a contract chose to place their dispute before it; its authority comes from their agreement, not directly from the State. That is precisely why the law dealing with arbitration, not the general evidence code, governs how it receives proof. This is the answer.
4. (D) National Green Tribunal: Like the ITAT and NCLT, the NGT is a statutory tribunal exercising judicial power conferred by an Act of Parliament over environmental matters, so it too falls within the reach of the general evidentiary framework. Not the answer.

Testing the source of each forum's authority shows that only the arbitral tribunal stands outside the class of bodies the BSA, 2023 was written for.

Therefore, the correct answer is Arbitral Tribunal.