SYSTEM UPDATE

The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act would help Indian agencies keep pace with the evolving nature of crimes, but there are some pitfalls, too

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

India’s criminal justice system is undergoing a major churn. The legal edifice built by the Britishers is being replaced brick by brick, with laws that are in sync with modern times and Indian conditions. Home Minister Amit Shah and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju are the architects, and have been brainstorming for the past one year to bring about this paradigm shift. In focus are the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

On April 18, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, ushering in the first big change. Opposition parties and critics called the legislation “draconian” and “unconstitutional”, and said it could be used to create a surveillance or police state. Policymakers and law enforcement bodies, on the other hand, called it a progressive law that brings Indian agencies at par with their counterparts in the US or the UK.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, has a centralised database of even shoe prints. “The US Secret Service has a database on almost every article today. Digital prints are available for everything from a shoe and wall paint to a deleted tweet,” said senior IPS officer Muktesh Chander, former director of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre in Delhi. With this, sleuths can match the shoe prints at the crime scene with their central database, identifying the makers and when that particular shoe was sold from which outlet in which part of the country.

“India needs to keep pace with the changing times where the five big technology giants like Google already have a database of individuals,” said Chander. “We have only taken a baby step in that direction.”