Are we really aware of our Fundamental Rights?

Yesterday, in Lok Sabha, Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 was passed, which is going to amend the Criminal Identification Bill, 1921. Clearly, it is also another colonial era act like UAPA which was earlier amended in 2019. So, there are three things which need to be discussed

. Our government is turning into a colonial era government where people were not allowed to express their opinion?

. Our government is doing all these, to control the crime data which is rising day by day drastically, and even if somehow Our police manage to catch the criminal, we do not have enough powers to investigate the crime effectively.

. Due to lack of awareness about constitution in normal population which is almost 70% of the total of our country, there is minority of people who are raising voice against violation of our Fundamental Rights, don’t we in immediate need of awareness regarding supremacy of constitution in our country?

To understand this bill and why it is violating the Fundamental Rights , we need to know little information about history of the original bill which is going to be amended and why we are amending this bill:

1. The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 allows police officers to collect certain identifiable information (fingerprints and footprints) of persons including convicts and arrested persons.

2.   Also, a Magistrate may order measurements or photographs of a person to be taken to aid the investigation of an offence.  In case of acquittal or discharge of the person, all material must be destroyed.

Recommendation from  the Various committee for  the concerned bill to The Ministry of Home Affairs:

1. In 1980, the Law Commission of India, while examining the 1920 Act, had noted the need to revise it to bring it in line with modern trends in criminal investigation.

2.   In March 2003, the Expert Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System (Chair: Dr. Justice V. S. Malimath) recommended amending the 1920 Act to empower the Magistrate to authorise the collection of data such as blood samples for DNA, hair, saliva, and semen.

3. The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 28, 2022.The Bill seeks to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920.

Key Features Of the Bill:

1. Data Permitted To be collected: Earlier Fingerprints, footprints and photographs were allowed to be collected from the arrested person now this bill added,  biological samples, and their analysis, behavioural attributes including signatures, handwriting, and examinations under sections 53 and 53A of CrPC (includes blood, semen, hair samples, and swabs, and analyses such as DNA profiling)

2. Persons whose data may be collected: Convicted or arrested for any offence.  However, biological samples may be taken forcibly only from persons arrested for offences against a woman or a child, or if the offence carries a minimum of seven years imprisonment. Persons detained under any preventive detention law .On the order of Magistrate, from any person (not just an arrested person) to aid investigation.

3. Person who may require/collect the data:Officer in charge of a police station, or of rank Head Constable or above.  In addition, a Head Warder of a prison.Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of first class.  In case of persons required to maintain good behaviour or peace, the Executive Magistrate

4. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be the central agency to maintain the records.  It will share the data with law enforcement agencies.  Further, states/UTs may notify agencies to collect, preserve, and share data in their respective jurisdictions.

5. The data collected will be retained in digital or electronic form for 75 years.   Records will be destroyed in case of persons who are acquitted after all appeals, or released without trial.   However, in such cases, a Court or Magistrate may direct the retention of details after recording reasons in writing.

Significance of the Bill:

It is a clear Violation of Fundamental Right, which is a part of Basic Structure of Constitution, hence The Hon’ble Supreme Court must interfere in this amendment. Let's have a look , how many articles are getting violated because of this bill:

Article 14, which talks about the Right To Equality before law.

Article 15, which talks about Prohibition on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Article 20, which talks about Protection in respect of conviction for offences.

Article 21, which talks about Protection of life and personal liberty.

Article 22, which talks about Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.

Since 2014, when NDA-2 has come  in power, there is a new ideology that has been developed around the country, The Modi Ideology, which has a clear vision of Hindutva Polity. Which is great, but isn’t it the reason , the future of minorities are in danger, in our country?

 We have such articles and provisions in our constitution, which are literally pasted from the colonial era which makes a question over our democracy, as it is a matter of pride for us that we are the largest democracy in the entire world. When we talk about Sedition act, The UAPA Act, 2019 and now this Criminal Procedure Bill, 2022; they are giving a clear vision of a colonial government or we would say, The Dictatorship government, where people are not even allowed to express their opinion freely; Just for a record, USA is the oldest democracy of the world, and even more democracies, from where we have adopted certain provisions, they don’t have any such kind of acts in their constitution. 

But, then another major data came into picture where India came 3rd around the world, in crime against women, girl child, trafficking of girls and human beings for labour.

Lets understand it with example,Suppose some person is accused for rape, the girl made the complaint and earlier to examine that person we need to go through a trail and in that process there is major chance that evidence are going to be manipulated and the case will be weak so there is need of improvement in data collection, and removal of trail will save the time and examination will be in accuracy. 

By keeping that record for such a time, we will have a record against the criminal and in future it would be easy to track him/her. By making  this act stronger, we will be able to decrease the act of crime and to empower the position of women in the society. 

Also, this law has certain criteria not every arrested person is going to come under this criteria. This is another relief for the people, earlier this was for every prisoner.  This kind of governmentality was needed and to limit rights of people by our parliament is not at all new, earlier many times it has been done by many governments.

42nd CAA, 1976  was the drastic violation of Fundamental rights, later some provisions deleted by the hon’ble Supreme Court, because the  Supreme court is the ‘final  interpreter of constitution’ or ‘Guardian of Indian Constitution’, holding rights to protect Basic Structure Of Indian Constitution. So, in this case also the  Supreme Court is definitely going to intervene so for that we need to wait till the right time. 

 

Now, the last question is are we really aware of our rights?

Let’s understand it with a daily life example

Today, my father and I were discussing this bill and I explained to him how this bill is violating our fundamental rights. And in reply, he said,’’Just because you are preparing for civil services and it came in your syllabus , you are familiar with these articles, otherwise nobody is even interested in all these. We have no need to know this. I just know one thing, that whatever the particular government is doing is better for our country, i am going to support this’’

Then only this question hit me hard, that it's not only that the majority of people are unaware, they even don’t have any such  interest to know it. It’s not only my father, almost all the rural areas of our country are unaware of the basic structure of the constitution. I think only 10% of the population knows about the articles and their respective rights, so the issue is if people are not aware of their rights, how are they going to question the government and if there is no question, then what will the supreme court do? The answer is nothing, hence this bill will come into power and become an act. 

We need to understand, Yes, Parliament is a bunch of people who are elected by us from our respective constituency but they are not superior authority, they can’t violate our rights. For that, first we have to know that we have the greatest democracy in the world, where parliament is not supreme here supremacy belongs to the Supreme Court.

Awareness is the only key to raise the voice of people for their rights, so we have to figure out effective measures by which the majority of people will be able to understand what is happening with our constitution by each and every amendment.