Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill in Lok Sabha on March 4; 3 Opposition MPs to move 24 amendments

The bill that significantly expands the scope of a 102-year-old law to allow police to take physical and biological samples of a convict or an arrested person will come up for passing in Lok Sabha on Monday with three senior Opposition MPs set to move two dozen amendments to tone down the controversial provisions.

The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, which was introduced last Monday, has been listed for discussion and passing in the Lower House. With Lok Sabha likely to pass the Bill without sending it to a Standing Committee, Opposition leaders in Rajya Sabha told DH that they would try to push the Bill to a Select Committee for further scrutiny.

The Bill, which has attracted widespread criticism, has widened the scope of police in collecting measurements from convicts and arrested persons.

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While earlier only fingerprints, foot-print impressions and photographs were only allowed, the new Bill allows police to take palm`1-print impressions, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes including signatures, handwriting among others. It also allows police to collect such data from a wider category of people.

Three Opposition MPs – Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy, BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and RSP’s NK Premachandran – have submitted 24 amendments to the Bill. Premachandran has submitted 14 while Roy and Mahtab have five each.

One of the basic objections of the MPs is the inclusion of the collection of biological samples of the convicts and non-convicts and their analysis in the provisions. Without a privacy law in place and lack of clarity on how such data is secured, Premachandran, and Roy want the provision to be deleted from the Bill.

Similarly, the MPs also oppose the provision that allows a Head Constable or a Head Warder to collect measurements. Roy wants an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police or a Jail Superintendent or Deputy Superintendent to do this job while Premachandran says it should be an Inspector or a Jail Superintendent.

The new bill allows law enforcement agencies to collect measurements of a convict or an accused, who has committed any offence while Premachandran wants it to be restricted to only heinous offences. He also does not want to allow police to collect data of those in preventive custody while Mahtab wants only convicted persons to be under its ambit.

Another contentious issue is the storage of such data by the NCRB. The MPs are seeking that the National Crime Records Bureau should not hold the data for 75 years and share it with other agencies.

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