NEW DELHI : A Bill to provide for the regulation of use and application of DNA technology for the purposes of establishing the identity of certain categories of persons including victims, offenders, suspects, undertrials, missing persons and unknown deceased persons was moved for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Piloting the DNA Technolgy (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018, Union Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said the proposed law regulates the use of DNA technology for establishing the identity of persons in respect of matters including criminal and civil such as parentage disputes, emigration or immigration, and transplantation of human organs.
Narrating the journey of the Bill since 2003 when Dr Murli Manohar Joshi was the Science and Technology Minister in the Atal Bihai Vajpayee government, Dr Vardhan said the proposed law has been synchronised with the Aadhaar Bill and it was seen seen that there was no clash with confidentiality and data protection.
For DNA profiling, there are 30-40 experts and 15-18 labs in the country and 3,000 profilings are done every year which is only 2-3 per cent of the required in the country, the Minister said, adding that there is no data bank in the country and no system to control and regulate the labs in the country
”The Bill establishes a DNA Regulatory Board. Every DNA laboratory that analyses a DNA sample to establish the identity of an individual, has to be accredited by the Board,” he said.
This long-awaited and important Bill establishes a National DNA Data Bank and Regional DNA Data Banks, he said.
As many as 40,000 bodies are found and one lakh children go missing in the country every year, Dr Vardhan said, adding that the Bill seeks to identify unidentified victims, repeated offenders and sets quality control and stardardisation for lawful purposes.
Six ministries, including Disaster Management Authority, External Affairs, Law, Women and Child Welfare, and agencies like NIA and CBI will benefit from the enactment of this proposed law, the Minister said.
The law was also enacted in 60 countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Bangladesh, he said.
Every Data Bank will maintain crime scene index, suspects’ or undertrials’ index, offenders’ index, missing persons’ index and unknown deceased persons’ index.
”Written consent by individuals is required to collect DNA samples from them. Consent is not required for offences with punishment of more than seven years of imprisonment or death, the minister said.
The Bill provides for the removal of DNA profiles of suspects on filing of a police report or court order, and of undertrials on the basis of a court order. Profiles in the crime scene and missing persons’ index will be removed on a written request.
The Bill requires consent of the individual when DNA profiling is used in criminal investigations and identifying missing persons.
DNA laboratories are required to share DNA data with the Data Banks. The Bill specifies the process by which DNA profiles may be removed from the Data Banks.
(AGENCIES)
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