Centre notifies rules for Criminal Identification Act
For taking measurements of an arrested person prior written approval of a Police officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police is required.
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The Centre has notified rules for the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, which empowers police to collect biometric data, including iris and retina scan, finger, palm, foot-print impressions, photographs, signatures and handwriting of convicts and those accused of a crime. The law passed by Parliament in April 2022 came into effect in August, replacing the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920.
The rules state that data of people arrested under offenses related to elections (Chapter IXA of the Indian Penal Code) and offences related to contempt or disobedience of public servants’ authority (Chapter X of the IPC) can only be taken with the “prior written approval” of a police officer not below the rank of a superintendent of police.
Home Minister Amit Shah has assured earlier during a debate in Parliament in April that people charged for violating prohibitory orders or detained for disturbing peace under section 144 or 145 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC), will not be obliged to give their measurements unless they are charged or arrested in connection with any other offence punishable under any other law during that period.
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The rules also state that measurements of people against whom preventive action has been initiated under sections 107, 108, 109 or 110 of the CrPC (pertaining to various offences related to public peace) "shall not be taken" unless the person is “ordered to give security for his good behaviour or maintaining peace under section 117 of CrPC". Noatbly, under Section 117, a magistrate has powers to order a person to give security for good behaviour.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will issue standard operating procedures for taking the measurements, the rules said. These procedures will include the specifications of the equipment or devices to be used for taking measurements; format, including digital or physical; method of handling and storage of measurements in the database at the level of state government or union territory administration in a format compatible with the database of the NCRB.
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The rules state that the record of measurements "shall be stored and preserved in a secure and encrypted format as specified in the SOPs". The SOPs will also define the process of destruction of data. The new law updates an older one that enables police to collect samples of a person’s biometric details, such as fingerprints and iris scans, if they have been arrested, detained or placed under preventive detention on charges that attract a jail term of seven years or more.
It makes it mandatory for people to allow collection of finger impressions, palm print impressions, footprint impressions, photographs, iris and retina scans, physical and biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes, including signatures and handwriting, among others. The law also empowers NCRB to collect, store and preserve these records for 75 years and share it with other agencies.