Magistrate can take accused's voice sample sans consent

NEW DELHI: A judicial magistrate can be entrusted with the power to order taking voice sample of an accused without his or her consent until Parliament amended the Criminal Procedure Code, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

The top court passed the direction using its extraordinary power under Art 142 in a landmark judgement.

A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi settled the issue on voice samples of accused in absence of a law.

Two judge bench had earlier given split verdicts.

In Ritish Sinha Vs State of UP (2013), the Constitutional validity of compelling the accused to give voice sample came up for consideration, the judge disagreed with each other and had referred the matter to a larger bench.