The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, just went into effect after being passed by Parliament in April 2022. It replaces the Identification of Prisoners Act of 1920, a colonial-era statute, and allows police officials to take measurements of people who have been convicted, imprisoned, or are on trial in criminal cases.
What exactly is the 2022 Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act?
It gives the police legal authority to take physical and biological samples from both convicts and people accused of crimes. Data can be collected by the police under Section 53 or Section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973. Data that can be acquired include: fingerprints, palm prints, foot prints, photographs, iris and retina scans, physical and biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes such as signatures, handwriting, or any other assessment. The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is the fundamental piece of legislation governing the procedural aspects of criminal law. Anyone convicted, arrested, or detained under a preventative detention law must produce "measurements" to a police officer or a prison official. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will store, preserve, share with any law enforcement agency, and delete national crime measuring records. The records can be kept for up to 75 years. Its goal is to assure the unique identification of persons involved in crime and to assist law enforcement in solving cases.
What is the Act's Importance?
current Techniques: The Act calls for the employment of current techniques to acquire and record accurate body measurements.
The existing law only permitted the collection of fingerprint and footprint impressions from a select group of convicted individuals.
Assist Investing Firms:
It intends to broaden the 'ambit of persons' whose measures can be obtained in order to assist investigating agencies in gathering adequate legally admissible evidence and establishing the accused person's crime.
Improving the Efficiency of Investigation:
It offers legal sanction for taking proper body measurements of those who are compelled to submit such measurements, making criminal investigations more efficient and quicker, as well as helping to increase the conviction rate.