What you should know about bill that allows collection of prisoners’ biometrics

The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill by a voice vote. The bill – that seeks to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act, of 1920 – was passed after union home minister Amit Shah addressed all concerns raised by the MPs about the legislation. “Next-generation crimes cannot be tackled with old techniques. We have to try to take the criminal justice system to the next era,” he asserted. The opposition has raised multiple concerns against the bill.

Here are five things to know about the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill:

1. The bill allows police and prison authorities to legally collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples including retina and iris scans of those convicted. The record of measurements will be retained for a period of 75 years from the date of collection, according to the bill.
2. The contentious bill proposes a legal collection of behavioural attributes including signatures, handwriting, or any other examination referred under Section 53 or Section 53A of CrPC of the convicts.
3. As per the legislation, if there is any resistance from the convicts to taking the measurements, it will be termed as an offence under Section 186 of the IPC (obstructing public servant) – leading to a jail term of three months, or a fine of ₹500 or both.
4. The government has also clarified that people who are not convicted or arrested for crimes against women or children, or those people who are in custody for an offence that is punishable for less than seven years, can refuse to give their biological samples.
5. Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said that these provisions will only be used in the cases of “heinous crimes”. He added that corresponding clarification will follow in the rules of the bill. According to him, the legislation is aimed at “strengthening law and order and national security of the country”.

Meanwhile, the opposition has called the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill a ‘draconian’ legislation. The opposition leaders raised several arguments in Lok Sabha on Monday. While Congress MP Manish Tewari termed the bill as ‘draconian and against civil liberties’, BSP’s Danish Ali said that the bill could “convert India into a police state and could be used to settle political scores.”

The opposition members have demanded the bill be referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.