22 Apr The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022
The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 – Today Current Affairs
The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 was passed recently by the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to replace the Identification of Captures Act, 1920, which authorized the taking of measures for identification and disquisition in felonious matters.
A crucial point of the bill is its widened description of measures, which includes iris and retina reviews, behavioral attributes, including autographs, handwriting, cutlet prints, footmark prints, win- print prints, photos, and also physical, natural samples “ and their analysis.” The words “ and their analysis” in the description of measures indicate the possibility of using colorful sources of information to produce biographies. As per the bill, the measures would be retained in digital or electronic form for 75 times.
Today Current Affairs
Key features of the Bill
Collection of Samples: The Bill expands the list of details that can be collected. It’ll now include
Win- print prints, iris and retina reviews, behavioral attributes similar as hand and handwriting, and other physical and natural samples similar as blood, semen, hair samples, and hearties, and their analysis.
Turndown to give details will be considered an offense under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Hindu Analysis
The Bill permits the collection of details about specified persons by either a captivity officer (not below the rank of Head Warder), or a police officer (in charge of a police station, or at least at the rank of a Head Constable).
Who’s covered under the bill: The Bill widens the dimension of similar persons to include all cons, arrested persons, as well as persons detained under any preventative detention law.
Arrested persons won’t be obliged to give their natural samples unless they’ve committed an offense against a woman or a child, or an offense punishable with a minimum of seven times of imprisonment.
Retention of details: The Bill requires the details collected to be retained in digital or electronic form for 75 times from the date of collection.
Further, the bill says that information about first- time malefactors who are released or acquitted will be deleted after all legal remedies have been exhausted. The Hindu Analysis
The National Crime Records Bureau, which falls under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, will collect, store, process, share and destroy the data.
Powers of Magistrate: Under the Bill, a Magistrate may direct a person to give details for the purpose of a disquisition or pacing under the CrPC.
Part of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB): The Bill empowers NCRB to collect the details about the persons covered under the Bill from state governments, union home (UT) administrations, or other law enforcement agencies.
Rule- making power extended to the central government: The 1920 Act vested rule- making power only in the state government. The Bill extends this power to the central government as well.
The Bill and the Right to privacy : The Hindu Analysis
The bill can be analyzed for its effect on the right to sequestration, which has been recognised as an abecedarian right under Composition 21 of the Constitution by the Supreme Court. First, an important hand of the right to sequestration is instructional sequestration of which concurrence is an essential demand. It can be argued that the bill doesn’t have the concurrence needed for the processing of sensitive particular data and thus unjustifiably intrudes into sequestration. The bill authorizations persons to allow measures to be taken and provides for discipline against turndown or resistance to give measures.
Alternately, an essential element of the right to sequestration is the right to erasure, which is a right of a person to demand erasure of particular data when the data is no longer needed for the purpose of processing. It can be argued that keeping measures for 75 times is against the right to erasure. Also, such a long retention period has the capability to produce lifelong stigmatization for the person whose measures are stored. The Hindu Analysis
When there’s an intrusion of sequestration as shown over, there’s a need to assess whether such an intrusion follows the triadic test of legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality laid down by the Supreme Court in the corner K S Puttaswamy judgment. It’s important to assess whether the measures proposed by the bill that intrude into sequestration are commensurable to the objective sought to be achieved by the bill and also whether sufficient safeguards are handed by the bill.
The bill provides for making it non-obligatory to furnish natural samples unless the offense is against a child or woman or punishable with imprisonment of seven times or further. This provision passes the test of proportionality because an intrusion of sequestration by collecting natural samples is commensurable to the ideal of combating serious crime and crime against women and children.
The bill provides that all measurement records shall be destroyed where the measurements of a person not previously convicted are taken and they are discharged, acquitted, or released without a trial. This provision fulfils the test of necessity as it provides that the data, which are not necessary for the objective of investigation of crime can be deleted. However, for a person convicted for a less serious crime, recording measurements for 75 years do not fulfill the test.
Thus, it becomes crucial to make a careful proportionality and necessity assessment. The measures restricting the right to privacy must be proportional and necessary for the objective sought to be achieved.
The Way Forward : The Hindu Analysis
- Ensuring Data Protection: The concern over privacy and the safety of the data is undoubtedly significant. Such practices that involve the collection, storage and destruction of vital details of a personal nature ought to be introduced only after a strong data protection law, with stringent punishment for breaches, is in place. The Hindu Analysis
- Any encroachment on personal space must pass the test of constitutionality as laid down by the Supreme Court.
- Parliament Scrutiny: The Bill was neither put up for pre-legislative consultation nor indicated in the session’s legislative agenda in Parliament. However, it would be in the fitness of things if the bill is referred to a Standing Committee for deeper scrutiny before it is enacted into law.
- Better Implementation: Depriving law enforcement agencies of the use of the latest technologies would be a grave disservice to victims of crimes, and the nation at large. Besides better scrutiny and data protection law, measures need to be taken for better implementation of the law as well.
- The need is to have more experts to collect measurements from the scene of crime, more forensic labs, and equipment to analyze them to identify possible accused involved in a criminal case.
The training of the investigation officers, prosecutors, judicial officers and collaboration with doctors and forensic experts need to be prioritized too.
In this article we mention all information about The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 Today Current Affairs.
plutus ias daily current affairs 22 April 2022 Hindi
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