Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill passed by Lok Sabha

April 4: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, by voice vote. It seeks to repeal The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920. The bill would allow the collection, storage and analysis of physical and biological samples, including retina and iris scan of the convicted, arrested and detained persons. This means that the bill seeks to provide legal sanction to the police to take physical and biological samples of convicts as well as persons accused of crimes.

In 1920, the colonial British government passed the Identification of Prisoners Act. Enacted just a month after the beginning of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. It authorised law-enforcement authorities to take and store the photographs, fingerprints and footprint impressions of convicted (and, in certain limited cases, non-convicted) persons, and made provisions for their storage and destruction.

The opposition in the Lok Sabha fought this Bill tooth and nail and stated that the government of a long-independent India has proposed to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act with a fresh draft law that seeks to collect even more personal data — and with even fewer safeguards — than the colonial law did.

The government’s intention to bring the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill is to strengthen the law and order and internal security of the country, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday, asserting that concerns over human and personal rights have been taken care of in the draft legislation.