Centre Withdraws DNA Technology Regulation Bill 2019 From Lok Sabha

The Union Government on Monday withdrew The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 from Lok Sabha.The bill aimed to provide for the regulation of the use and application of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) technology for the purposes of establishing the identity of certain categories of persons including the victims, offenders, suspects, undertrials, missing persons and unknown deceased persons. It would have allowed the collection of samples from bodily substances, the scene of occurrence or crime, clothing, and other objects, as well as from such other sources as may be specified by regulations.According to the Bill, consent was not required for taking DNA samples if the person is arrested for an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for a term exceeding seven years. The Bill also had provision for the establishment of a National DNA Data Bank and Regional DNA Data Banks, for every state. DNA laboratories were required to share DNA data prepared by them with the National and Regional DNA Data Banks. DissentAll India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi and CPl MP Binoy Viswamithra had submitted their dissent to the Standing Committee On Science & Technology, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, which is headed by Congress MP Jairam RameshOwaisi had raised concerns on potential misuse of the sensitive data collection like DNA. “An overarching data protection statute is necessary to govern data collection and management in all instances. In the absence of a clear framework governing individual right to privacy, public and private entities are guided by narrow standards, leaving much scope for discretion,” he had said.He had also pointed out that the Bill cannot be seen in isolation from other legislative and policy developments. “The most important is that the government continues to collect citizens' private data without a private data protection law,” he had said.Owaisi had also recommended that the Bill should not be introduced until the Private Data Protection Bill is enacted.Whereas MP Binoy Biswas had said that the provisions of the Bill are likely to impact marginalised and minority communities. He had also raised concerns about potential threats to the right to privacy.MP Jairam Ramesh in a tweet posted today said:"Yesterday the Modi government quietly withdrew the The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019. The Bill had been examined in detail by the S&T Standing Committee which had suggested a number of important amendments to ensure that the provisions in the Bill were not misused or abused. A few members had submitted notes of dissent as well. The Committee's report was submitted on Feb 3, 2021. Now the Modi government says most of the provisions of the Bill have already been made part of the Criminal Procedure(Identification) Act, 2022 and hence the DNA Bill is not required. Actually, the real reason is that the Modi government did NOT want the elaborate safeguards recommended by the Standing Committee and decided to just ignore it after having pressed for early submission of its report. The fears of the critics of the govt’s DNA Bill now stand fully justified."Click Here To Read/Download Bill

Centre Withdraws DNA Technology Regulation Bill 2019 From Lok Sabha

Aiman J. Chishti

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