About the DNA Bill

• The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister for Science and Technology, Mr. Harsh Vardhan, on July 8, 2019. The Bill is for the regulation of use and application of DNA technology for the purpose of establishing identity of missing persons, victims, offenders, under trials and unknown deceased persons.
• The primary intended purpose of  the Bill is for expanding the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country. 
• The utility of DNA based technologies for solving crimes, and to identify missing persons, is well recognized across the world. 
• By providing for the mandatory accreditation and regulation of DNA laboratories, the Bill seeks to ensure that with the proposed expanded use of this technology in this country, there is also the assurance that the DNA test results are reliable, and furthermore that the data remain protected from misuse or abuse in terms of the privacy rights of our citizens.
• The proposed legislation will empower the criminal justice delivery system by enabling the application of DNA evidence, which is considered the gold standard in crime investigations. 
• Establishment of the National and Regional DNA Data Banks, as envisaged in the Bill, will assist in forensic investigations.
• The proposed Bill will give fillip to the development of uniform code of practices in all laboratories involved in DNA testing throughout the country.
• This  will aid in scientific upgradation and streamlining of the DNA testing activities in the country with appropriate inputs from the DNA Regulatory Board which would be set up for the purpose. 

Important provisions

• DNA testing is allowed only in respect of matters listed in the Schedule to the Bill. 
• While preparing a DNA profile, bodily substances of persons may be collected by the investigating authorities. 
• Authorities are required to obtain consent for collection in certain situations. 
• For arrested persons, authorities are required to obtain written consent if the offence carries a punishment of up to seven years. 
• If the offence carries more than seven years of imprisonment or death, consent is not required.
• The Bill provides for the establishment of a National DNA Data Bank and Regional DNA Data Banks, for every state, or two or more states.
• The Bill states that the criteria for entry, retention, or removal of the DNA profile will be specified by regulations. 
• The Bill specifies penalties for various offences, including: (i) for disclosure of DNA information, or (ii) using DNA samples without authorization.

DNA Regulatory Board

• The Bill provides for the establishment of a DNA Regulatory Board, which will supervise the DNA Data Banks and DNA laboratories. 
• The Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, will be the ex-officio Chairperson of the Board. 
• The functions of the Board include: (i) advising governments on all issues related to establishing DNA laboratories or Data Banks, and (ii) granting accreditation to DNA laboratories. 
• Further, the Board is required to ensure that all information relating to DNA profiles with the Data Banks, laboratories, and other persons are kept confidential. 
• Any laboratory undertaking DNA testing is required to obtain accreditation from the Board. 
• The Board may revoke the accreditation for reasons including failure to: (i) undertake DNA testing, or (ii) comply with the conditions attached to the accreditation. 
• If the accreditation is revoked, an appeal will lie before the central government or any other authority notified by the central government. 

Need for the Bill

• DNA testing is currently being done on an extremely limited scale in India, with approximately 30-40 DNA experts in 15-18 laboratories undertaking less than 3,000 cases per year, which represent 2-3% of the total need. 
• However, the standards of the laboratories are not monitored or regulated.
• The Bill is urgently required as its applications would be also to enable identification of missing children. 
• As per the National Crime Records Bureau, annually 1,00,000 children go missing. 
• The Bill will also help in identifying unidentified deceased, including disaster victims and apprehend repeat offenders for heinous crimes such as rape and murder. 
• The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Act, 2019, has been in the works for 15 years now. 
• Nearly 60 countries have enacted similar legislation with the U.S. bringing in a law as far back as in 1994.

Why in News?

A draft report of the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology has flagged some alarming provisions that could be misused for caste or community-based profiling.

Concerns about the Bill

• Access to such intrusive information can be misused to specifically target individuals and their families with their own genetic data. 
• This is particularly worrying as it could even be used to incorrectly link a particular caste/community to criminal activities.
• The committee, in its draft report, pointed out that the DNA profiles can reveal extremely sensitive information of an individual such as pedigree, skin colour, behaviour, illness, health status and susceptibility to diseases. 

Privacy concerns

• The report has also red-flagged disregard to an individual’s privacy and other safeguards. 
• The Bill proposes to store DNA profiles of suspects, undertrials, victims and their relatives for future investigations. 
• While there is a good case for a DNA database of convicts, so that repeat offenders may be easily identified, there is no legal or moral justification for a database with DNA of the other categories as noted above, given the high potential for misuse.

‘Perfunctory consent’

• In the Bill, if a person is arrested for an offence that carries punishment up to seven years, investigation authorities must take the person’s written consent before taking the DNA sample. 
• But this consent, the draft report flags, is only “perfunctory” (superficiality).
• The Bill refers to consent in several provisions, but in each of those, a magistrate can easily override consent, thereby in effect, making consent perfunctory. 
• There is also no guidance in the Bill on the grounds and reasons of when the magistrate can override consent, which could become a fatal flaw,

Right to be forgotten

• The Bill permits retention of DNA found at a crime scene in perpetuity, even if conviction of the offender has been overturned. 
• The committee has urged the government to amend the provisions to ensure that if the person has been found innocent his DNA profile has to be removed immediately from the data bank.
• The committee has recommended that independent scrutiny must be done of the proposals to destroy biological samples and remove DNA profiles from the database.
• The Bill also provides that DNA profiles for civil matters will also be stored in the data banks, but without a clear and separate index. 
• The committee has questioned the necessity for storage of such DNA profiles, pointing out that this violates the fundamental right to privacy and does not serve any public purpose.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/dna-bill-can-be-misused-for-caste-based-profiling-says-panel-draft-report/article32429334.ece