Bill to regulate use of DNA technology withdrawn from Lok Sabha

The government on Monday withdrew from the Lok Sabha a contentious draft legislation aimed at regulating the use of DNA technology to identify a person because most clauses of this bill have already been covered in the recently introduced Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act.

Science minister Jitendra Singh withdrew the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019, when the House reassembled at 12pm after an adjournment. The bill was tabled to regulate the use and application of DNA technology to establish the identity of certain categories of people, including victims, offenders, suspects, under trials, those missing and unidentified dead. The proposed law, which has been in the making since 2003, has seen multiple iterations in Parliament.

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The proposed law was criticised by the opposition. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called the bill “flawed” since it did not provide for consent on storing DNA data, arguing that it violated fundamental rights of an individual as DNA of under trials could be collected without court orders.

The bill would institutionalise a “surveillance state”, Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor, suggesting that a data protection law should be put in place first. “You cannot put the cart before the horse,” Tharoor said.

DNA data can reveal sensitive information that can be used to criminalise a community or caste, argued Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. Data as sensitive as DNA requires “additional protection” as potential for misuse is high and the possible harm is significant, he said.

DNA testing is now universally accepted as the gold standard of forensic investigation, a science ministry official said, declining to be named. However, since the government enacted the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, in April last year to take measurements of convicts and other persons for the purposes of identification and investigation in criminal matters, and because most of the clauses of the DNA technology bill have broadly been covered in that, the government decided to withdraw it.