AuthorTelanganaTodayPublished: 11th Aug 2018 12:22 am
The DNA Technology Regulation Bill, 2018, quietly introduced in Parliament last week, has the potential to raise questions of privacy and human rights. Though the new legislation is aimed at creating a national DNA database for use by law enforcement agencies in solving crimes and identifying missing persons, it needs to clarify on issues that would have wider implications for citizens’ privacy. Enough safeguards need to be incorporated into the law as it provides sweeping powers to the police. Although DNA can be a key tool in solving crimes, it is important that there are safeguards to protect human rights and prevent miscarriages of justice. Creating large databases could raise questions similar to the raging debate over Aadhaar. Though the government maintains that the move is to merely expand the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system, there are genuine concerns over the project for ignoring privacy and security issues. Since the draft Bill was prepared much before the August 2017 Supreme Court judgement ruling that privacy is a fundamental right, necessary amendments must be incorporated to ensure that the new law is in tune with the verdict. Before enacting such laws, there has to be a significant improvement in capacity building regarding collection and use of DNA for forensic purposes. Fundamental constitutional issues like privacy and the right against incrimination find no consideration in the proposed Bill.
It would be imprudent to pass such a law without first putting in place a comprehensive privacy and data protection Act. As per the Bill, the government will set up DNA data banks to ‘strengthen and support the justice delivery system of the country’. These data banks will maintain a national database for the identification of victims, suspects, missing persons and unidentified human remains and are expected to increase conviction rates in cases of murder, rape and human trafficking. However, separate data banks should be established for criminal and civil purposes and samples must be collected only by consent. Profiling is commonly used in criminal investigations, for comparing one or more individuals’ profiles to DNA found at a crime scene to assess the likelihood of their involvement in the crime. The Bill also gives overriding powers to the Centre to supersede the powers of both the DNA Profiling Board and courts. Such a skewed arrangement can have serious consequences. Before proceeding further on the new legislation, the government must address concerns regarding the chain of custody of DNA samples between crime scenes, labs and data banks, expansive powers of the DNA Regulatory Board and privacy-related aspects, including the need for adequate standards for consent, retention, deletion, sharing and disclosure of information and right to access.