Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022

Why in news?

• Recently, the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022 has come into force after being passed by the Parliament in April 2022.

About Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022:

• It replaces the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, a colonial era law, and authorises police officers to take measurements of people convicted, arrested or facing trial in criminal cases.
• It provides Legal sanction to the police to take physical and biological samples of convicts as well as those accused of crimes.
• The police as per section 53 or section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, can collect Data.
  • Data that can be collected:
    • 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
  • CrPC is the primary legislation regarding the procedural aspects of criminal law.
• 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.
• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will store, preserve, share with any law enforcement agency and destroy the record of measurements at national level. The records can be stored up to a period of 75 years.
• It aims to ensure the unique identification of those involved with crime and to help investigating agencies solve cases.

Significance of the Act:

• Modern Techniques:
  • The Act makes provisions for the use of modern techniques to capture and record appropriate body measurements.
  • The existing law allowed taking only fingerprint and footprint impressions of a limited category of convicted persons.
• Help Investing Agencies:
  • It seeks to expand the ‘ambit of persons’ whose measurements can be taken as this will help the investigating agencies to gather sufficient legally admissible evidence and establish the crime of the accused person.
• Making Investigation More Efficient:
  • It provides legal sanction for taking appropriate body measurements of persons who are required to give such measurements and will make the investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious and will also help in increasing the conviction rate.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding ‘Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022’:

1. It provides legal sanction to the police to take physical and biological samples of convicts

2. The records collected under the Act can be stored up to a period of 75 years.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

                    C

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