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Congress MP P Chidambaram on Wednesday termed the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 as ‘unconstitutional.’
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the second part of the Budget Session of Parliament, the former home minister said, “It (the Bill) is unconstitutional. It violates liberty, privacy and dignity of people. The bill was not referred to a select committee,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Union home minister Amit Shah moved the Bill in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Chidambaram said the BJP-led central government has not taken the historic verdict of the Supreme Court in some related cases into account while drafting the Bill. “In the Selvi case (versus state of Karnataka), the court had said that polygraph, narco analysis and brain electrical activation profile (BEAP) violate an individual’s rights,” he told Parliament.
While introducing the Bill, Shah said it has been brought with the sole objective to “improve the conviction rate in the country, protect the human rights of crores of law-abiding citizens” and send a strong message in society by punishing the criminals.
Further, slamming the Opposition for raising the issue of human rights, he said the latter should rather be concerned about the human rights of the law-abiding victims of crime. “Those who are talking about human rights, it is my request to them that you must think about those who are harassed by criminals. You are concerned about those involved in robbing, and rape. You are only concerned about the criminals. The Narendra Modi government is concerned about the people who live on the basis of law,” Shah had said.
The Bill provides for legal sanction for taking appropriate body measurements (finger impressions, palm-print and foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, and biological samples) of persons who are required to give such measurements to “make the investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious”.
The Bill also seeks to empower the National Crime Records Bureau of India to collect, store and preserve the record of measurements and for sharing, dissemination, destruction and disposal of records. It also empowers a magistrate to direct any person to give measurements and empower police or prison officers to take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements.
(With agency inputs)
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