Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act & Delhi Municipal Corporation Amendment Act get President’s approval
The President of India has given assent to the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 which allows investigating officers to collect the biometric details of prisoners, and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Bill, 2022, to merge the three municipal corporations in Delhi.
Sanjay Vashishtha, explains in his blog that the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill was introduced to allow the use of modern methods to capture and record acceptable body dimensions, with the goal of authorising the taking of measurements of convicts and other people for purpose of investigation and criminal cases. However the act infringes citizen’s rights by granting state broad powers to store prisoner records and conduct physical and biological tests with implied force of the law.
A live law report states that the three bodies, trifurcating the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, were created in 2011 with the passing of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act by the legislative assembly of Delhi. That is why; the opposition has criticized the legislation, alleging that it disrupts cooperative Federalism. However, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the centre has special powers under Article 239AA to add, amend, vary or repeal any law made by legislative assembly.
Key Factors of the Bill
The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022
It allows National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) the authority to collect, store, preserve records of measurement, as well as to share, disseminate, destroy and dispose records. It also allows law enforcement officers to collect fingerprints, palm print impressions, footprint impressions, photographs, iris and retina scans, physical, biological analysis, signatures, handwriting in cases of specific category of convicted and non convicted cases.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation Bill, 2022
It is aimed at unifying the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi including South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) into one and will be known as Municipal Corporation of Delhi. A special officer will be appointed to discharge functions of the corporation. Also, the total number of seats reserved shall not be more than 250 in any case.
