Topic: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
2. Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 which provides legal sanction for police to obtain physical and biological samples of convicts and detainees for making investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious raises concerns about privacy and misuse. Critically analyse. (250 words)
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Indian Express
Why the question: On March 28, Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra introduced The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha. If passed, it will allow police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples including retina and iris scans of convicted, arrested and detained persons. At the introduction stage, Opposition members opposed the Bill terming it “unconstitutional” and an attack on privacy.
Key Demand of the question: To analyse the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, its positives and concerns associated with it.
Directive word:
Critically analyze – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a balanced judgment on the topic.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by writing about the aims and objectives of Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022
Body:
First write about the important features of the bill which to repeal The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 – it would define ‘‘measurements’’ to include “signature, handwriting, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, etc, empowers the National Crime Records Bureau of India (NCRB), under the Union Home Ministry, to collect, store and preserve the record of measurements for at least 75 years etc.
Next, write about how this will assist in making investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious – higher convictions rate, easy of data access, coordination among agencies etc.
Next, write about the various concerns with respect to the bills – unfettered powers to law enforcement agencies to interpret the law as per their convenience, ambiguous wording, scope for misuse etc.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward to address the above concerns.
