Are e-signed appointment letters legally acceptable

Hi All,

I wanted to check if the electronically signed appointment letters are considered legally. I recently got to know that in the court, an e-signed appointment letter is not considered as a strong evidence that the document was signed by the employee. However, I was skeptical on this as most of the companies nowadays collect the e-signed copies of the appointment letter. Can someone advise?

What do you mean by e sign/ e signature? Is it scanned signature on a document? Though the scanned signature has no legal standing, it can be considered as acceptance of employment, the terms and conditions of employment, provided the employee has assumed office and has drawn salary from the employment. After working for the company and collecting salary from the company, he cannot deny that he did not accept the employment.

Thanks for your help. E-signature as in the documents sent via DocuSign or Adobe sign for acceptance.

It will depend on the facts of the case.
How secure and manipulable is the signature
Can it be affixed without the employee’s approval later?

The E signed documents are valid, provided the validated documents down loaded. The court can't call it void because all the government offices, Education Boards and Universities are issuing e signed licence and certificates. The court declared invalid for certain reasons. Electronic signatures are legally recognized in India and are provided for in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“ITA”), the Indian Contract Act of 1872 (“ICA”) and the Electronic Signature or Electronic Authentication Technique and Procedure Rules, 2015 (“ESEATPR”).