Lok Sabha passes DNA Technology Regulation Bill! All details inside
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New Delhi, Jul. 8: Today Lok Sabha witnessed magnificent and loaded day with the introduction of 8 new bills in the house. Among these bills, one of the important bills, “The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill-2019” was introduced by Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and passed by voice vote after discussion.
The importance of the bill is to provide regulation for the use and application of DNA technology for the purpose of establishing the identity of a certain category of people, including the victims, offenders, suspects, under trials, missing persons and others.
Here are the important details of The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill-
Objectives-
The main objective behind the enactment of the bill is to expand the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country.
The use of DNA based technologies for solving crimes and to identify missing persons is well recognized across the world.
Important features of the bill-
- The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill provides for mandatory accreditation and regulation of DNA laboratories.
- Through this, it seeks to ensure that with the proposed expanded use of this technology in the country, there is also the assurance that the DNA test results are reliable and the data remain protected from misuse or abuse in terms of the privacy rights of the country’s citizens.
- The bill also seeks to ensure speedier justice delivery and increased conviction rate.
- It also seeks to establish a National DNA Data Bank and Regional DNA Data Banks.
- The bill’s provisions will enable cross-matching between persons who have been reported missing on one hand and unidentified dead bodies were found in various parts of the country on the other.
- It will help in establishing the identity of victims in mass disasters.
Significance of Bill -
Once the bill becomes a law, it will help in the criminal justice system, finding the families of missing children and other purposes. The bill has gone through the scrutiny of several experts in the last 15 years.
It is expected that the expanded use of the technology in these categories of cases would not only result in speedier justice delivery but also in increased conviction rates, which at present is only around 30%, as per NCRB Statistics for 2016.