What is Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022?

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will introduce the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022 in parliament today. The bill will be introduced during the ongoing second part of Parliament's Budget Session, which began on March 14. It will end on April 8th.

The goal of the Bill is to allow the police to collect measures of convicts and other people for the purposes of identification and criminal investigations, as well as to keep records. When the new Bill is submitted, it will abolish the old The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920.

The Bill also authorises police to conduct "fingerprints, palmprints, footprint impressions, photographs, iris and retina scans, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes, including signatures, handwriting, or any other examination" as defined in sections 53 or 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

According to the legislation, anybody convicted, imprisoned, or detained under any preventive detention statute will be forced to produce "measurements" to a police officer or a prison official. The bill would abolish the current 'Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920.' This Act restricts the taking of finger and footprint imprints, as well as pictures on the direction of a Magistrate, to a limited group of convicted and non-convicted individuals.

However, the current law allows for the collection of finger and footprint impressions, as well as pictures on the direction of a Magistrate, for a restricted group of convicted and non-convicted individuals.

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