What is CrPc amendment bill tabled by the Modi Government?
The Bill seeks to repeal The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 whose scope was limited to allow for taking of finger impressions and foot-print impressions of limited category of convicted and non-convicted persons and photographs on the order of a Magistrate.
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New Delhi, Mar 28: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai will table the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 in the Lok Sabha on Monday that would enable the police and prison officers across the country to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples, iris and retina scan and signature and handwriting of arrested or convicted prisoners. The Bill also seeks to apply to persons detained under any preventive detention law. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be the repository of physical and biological samples and the data can be preserved for at least 75 years.
The Bill seeks to repeal The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 whose scope was limited to allow for taking of finger impressions and foot-print impressions of limited category of convicted and non-convicted persons and photographs on the order of a Magistrate.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill said that new ‘‘measurement’’ techniques being used in advanced countries were giving credible and reliable results and were recognised world over. “The Act (Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920) does not provide for taking these body measurements as many of the techniques and technologies had not been developed at that point of time. It is, therefore, essential to make provisions for modern techniques to capture and record appropriate body measurements in place of existing limited measurements,” it said. The Bill seeks to expand the ‘‘ambit of persons’’ whose measurements can be taken as this will help the investigating agencies to gather sufficient legally admissible evidence and establish the crime of the accused person. “Therefore, there is a need for expanding the scope and ambit of the ‘‘measurements’’ which can be taken under the provisions of law as it will help in unique identification of a person involved in any crime and will assist the investigating agencies in solving the criminal case,” it says.
The Bill provides legal sanction for taking appropriate body measurements of persons who are required to give such measurements and will make the investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious and will also help in increasing the conviction rate. It seeks to define ‘‘measurements’’ to include finger-impressions, palm-print and foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis and empowers the NCRB to collect, store and preserve the record of measurements and for sharing, dissemination, destruction and disposal of records. It empowers a Magistrate to direct any person to give measurements and also empowers the police or prison officer to take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements.