26/07/2017 Process to Introduce DNA Profiling Bill Initiated, Says Centre to SC

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LAW

Process to
Introduce DNA
Pro ling Bill
Initiated, Says
Centre to SC
BY PTI ON 22/07/2017 LEAVE A COMMENT

(L) A DNA double helix is seen in an undated artists illustration released by the
National Human Genome Research Institute to Reuters on May 15, 2012 and the

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26/07/2017 Process to Introduce DNA Profiling Bill Initiated, Says Centre to SC

Supreme Court of India. Credit: National Human Genome Research Institute

Handout via Reuters/PTI

New Delhi: A legislative process is in progress to bring in a Human

DNA Profiling Bill to enable the authorities to maintain records of
unidentified and unclaimed dead bodies or missing persons, the
government told the Supreme Court on Monday.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices A.

M. Khanwilkar and M. M. Shantanagoudar was informed by
additional solicitor general P. S. Narasimha that the process to bring
in the measure has been initiated.

The process to bring in the legislation has begun. Government is

mulling to bring in Human DNA Profiling Bill, he said. The bench
posted the matter for further hearing after 12 weeks.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Lokniti Foundation stating
that India does not have a national DNA database to address the issue
of thousands of unclaimed dead bodies that are reported annually. It
had suggested that maintaining of the DNA profiles of the bodies
before their disposal could help in their identification by the family
members.

The apex court had in 2014 issued notice to Ministry of Home Affairs,
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the secretary of the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, seeking their
responses to the petition.

The NGO in its plea had said that since the bodies cannot be
identified using traditional methods, the perpetrators of the possible
crime remain untraced and the families, to which the victims
belonged, never come to know about the fate of their near and dear
ones. It had said that the DNA profiling of unidentified bodies can
help match the missing persons and trace them.

The NGO had claimed that though the government had been
considering a proposal for DNA profiling of unidentified bodies since
2007, but no decision had been taken as yet. One of the main
reasons for a large number of bodies remaining unidentified is that a
person freely moves from one part to another in search of work and
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26/07/2017 Process to Introduce DNA Profiling Bill Initiated, Says Centre to SC

members of poor families have no means to keep in touch with their

near and dear ones.

It becomes difficult for the local police to identify persons who have
no local connection and who have died without anyone complaining
of death caused by any mischief, the plea had said.

(PTI)

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26/07/2017 Process to Introduce DNA Profiling Bill Initiated, Says Centre to SC

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