Shruti Yadav, B.A. LL. B (Hons), Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal
ABSTRACT
In 1980, the Law Commission recommended amending the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, to bring it in line with modern technology and sustain the requirements of a criminal investigation. A British era law, ‘The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920’, was the only regulation in India that authorised the Police to gather primary identifying data such as fingerprints and footprints of the detained and convicted persons. With the advancement of technology and the necessity for scientific analysis of crime and criminology, the provisions of the above Act were very insufficient. The situation described above meant that until now, the agencies had very little scientific data to support their investigations and remained dependent on primitive identification procedures such as fingerprints and footprints. Later in 2005, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was amended to empower a magistrate to collect handwriting samples and photographs of any person for investigation. Even this was lacking from progressing scientific analysis of crime and criminology and developing crime investigation systems in the modern world.
To tackle this situation, the Criminal Procedure identification Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March this year and was passed on April 4. Later the Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on April 6, 2022. This paper further analyses the provisions of the bill and enlists the reason why it is against the spirit of the constitution.
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