Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill to help investigation agencies, increase conviction rate: Govt
Mar 28, 2022
New Delhi [India], March 28 : The 'Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022' will not only help investigation agencies but also increase prosecution, said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni on Monday.
"The current Identification of Prisoners Act was formed in 1920. It has been 102 years now. The Act provided for the collection of only fingerprints and footprints. The world has undergone technological and scientific changes, crime and its trend have increased," Teni said in the Lok Sabha.
"That is why we have brought the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022. The Bill will not only help our investigation agencies but also increase prosecution. There is also a chance of an increase in conviction rate in courts through this," added the Union Minister.
The Bill aims at authorising the police to take measurements of convicts and other persons for the purposes of their identifications and investigations in criminal matters to preserve records. It allows police to collect "finger-impressions, palm-print impressions, footprint impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes, including signatures, handwriting or any other examination" referred to in section 53 or section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
As per the provisions of the Bill, any person convicted, arrested or detained under any preventive detention law will be required to provide "measurements" to a police officer or a prison official.
The bill will repeal the existing 'The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920'.
In this Act, it is limited to allow for the taking of finger and footprint impressions and for a limited category of convicted and non-convicted persons and photographs on the order of a Magistrate.
The second half of the Budget session of Parliament began on March 14 and will conclude on April 8. The first half of the Budget session began on January 31 and concluded on February 11.
