Electronic Signatures in HR: How Should We Handle Employee Disputes Over Authenticity?

Use of Electronic Signatures in Employment Contracts

Today, we send employment contracts (Offer Letters) or any HR documents to employees through the DocuSign tool. The document sent through the tool to the employee includes a log that proves the time the document was sent to the employee, the time the employee viewed it, and when they signed and submitted the document. This log summary should suffice as evidence in case of litigation, demonstrating that the employee accepted the document sent through the tool.

Employee Concerns About Signature Authenticity

However, one of the employees has come back questioning that the signature is not his handwritten one but was picked from the options available in the tool, which differs from his manual signature. He mentioned that in case of disputes, he could file a case with the court stating that the document was not signed by him.

Organizational Response to Signature Disputes

In this context, how should an organization take a stand?

Dear Kannan, I expected that some of the members of this forum who are very computer savvy would be answering your question, but no one has done so thus far. Perhaps your post may have escaped their attention. Therefore, as I am not computer savvy, I would like to answer your query as a layman. In the face of increasing cybercrimes, it would be better to limit the use of e-signatures in documents that can be contested about their veracity by anyone later.

Legal recognition of electronic signatures

Even the Information Technology Act, 2000, the primary objective of which is to provide legal recognition to what is commonly called "electronic commerce," declares that a Standard Electronic Signature is valid in HR documents, commercial agreements, consumer agreements, etc., but not valid in a Power of Attorney, Trust Deed, Will, or any other testamentary disposition, any contract for the sale or conveyance of immovable property, or any such interest in such property.

When an employee disputes the genuineness of his earlier e-signature, if you had followed the procedures of secure digital signature mentioned in Section 15 of the IT Act, 2000, there would be no problem.

Conventional methods

But my question is, why can't you follow the conventional method of obtaining nomination forms, etc., with the individual's handwritten signature?

Kind regards, [Your Name]

Hi Umakanthan,

I agree with you on manual signatures being obtained for nomination forms, but in today's IT world, this generation is eliminating anything manual, including signatures and documentation. Although I am from Gen X, I need to move ahead with the times.