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Criminal Identification Procedure Code - Final

1) The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 has been proposed by the Indian government to expedite investigations but has faced significant criticism for violating fundamental human rights. 2) The bill would allow police to collect sensitive biometric and behavioral data from convicted individuals and suspects without consent. This violates constitutional protections against self-incrimination and the right to privacy. 3) There are also concerns about how the data would be stored, protected, and deleted, raising the risk of misuse during investigations and profiling. Overall, critics argue the bill exceeds legal powers and threatens civil liberties without clear benefits to the criminal justice system.

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Yash Bhatnagar
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48 views2 pages

Criminal Identification Procedure Code - Final

1) The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 has been proposed by the Indian government to expedite investigations but has faced significant criticism for violating fundamental human rights. 2) The bill would allow police to collect sensitive biometric and behavioral data from convicted individuals and suspects without consent. This violates constitutional protections against self-incrimination and the right to privacy. 3) There are also concerns about how the data would be stored, protected, and deleted, raising the risk of misuse during investigations and profiling. Overall, critics argue the bill exceeds legal powers and threatens civil liberties without clear benefits to the criminal justice system.

Uploaded by

Yash Bhatnagar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (IDENTIFICATION) BILL, 2022: NECESSARY MEASURES OR

GROSS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Introduction
Union Government of India recently introduced and tabled a much-protested bill named Criminal
Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022. The bill, introduced to “expedite” the process of investigation, is
being slammed by several politicians and civil society activists for violating fundamental and basic
human rights of the prisoners. It redefines ‘measurements’ to allow the police to take iris and retina
scans, photographs, finger impressions, palm-print impressions, footprint impressions, physical and
biological samples, and their analysis. The Bill will also allow the police to collect behavioural
attributes including signatures and handwriting, or any other examination referred under
Sections 53 or 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Hindering Fundamental Human Rights


While the government is adamant on the legislative viability of the bill, there has been dissenters who
are voicing their opinions about the violative nature of the document. While the bill not only
questions the basic fundamental rights of the prisoners, it also directs towards the extreme callousness
concerning data collection and possible discriminatory police practices.

Section 3 of the bill says that any person convicted of an offence should allow a prison official to take
their measurement as prescribed by central or state government. This is a clear violation of article
20(3) of the Indian Constitution which rescues anyone who is compelled to be a witness against
themselves but is also a violation of basic human rights adorned to prisoners through the UN Standard
Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of
which are international documents vouching for fair and just treatment of prisoners. The apex court of
India in Selvi v State of Karnataka has already condemned practices like narco-analysis, brain
mapping and lie detector in police investigation.

Privacy Concerns
The provision of the bill also allows the executive body to track “behavioral attributes” including
signatures and handwriting of the prisoners. These attributes are not only sensitive information of the
prisoners but can also be misused in a course of an ongoing investigation. Article 21 of the Indian
Constitution safeguards’ the Right to Privacy of any individual and Section 2(b) of the bill clearly
violates the same. Prisoners in India does have access to the basic fundamental rights of equality, free
speech and life as presented in the case of T.V. Vatheeswaran v. State of Tamil Nadu. Furthermore,
the bill empowers the police and courts to conduct these “measurements” on suspects involved in a
case as well, defeating the one of the most basic principle of law; Innocent until proven otherwise.
There is also no proper mechanism revealed through the bill as to how and where this data will be
stored and who will check the sanctity of legitimate use.

Conclusion
A sense of arbitrariness is reflected through various provisions of the bill. Though, it seeks to collect
‘measurements’ of the prisoners even without consent for those who are convicted or arrested for
offenses of more than 7 years, it does not draw a clear and reasonable nexus as to how the collection
will help in ‘crime prevention’. Surprisingly, there is no mechanism for deletion of a person’s date
even after the accused is acquitted which further manifest the possible misuse of the data. Section 3 of
the bill classifies convicts based on their punishments, anyone arrested or convicted for offences
punishable by 7 years or more ‘may be compelled’ to give measurements and not otherwise again this
classification exhibits no junction to how this makes the investigation mechanism more efficient and
reasonable. Further, it must be taken into consideration that the bill even includes detainees under
preventive detention laws which make it more palpable that it may be used unnecessarily for the
whims and fancies of the state. Moreover, with lack of digital inclusion in the country, there will be
separate section of people indirectly targeted by the bill.

This unwarranted expansion of requisite power can be a threat to the principles of which Indian
constitution is based upon by weakening an already restricted section of the society.

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