oppn parties Criminal Procedure Law: Poorly Drafted, Violates Rights

News Snippets

  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Criminal Procedure Law: Poorly Drafted, Violates Rights

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-03-30 10:09:13

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

The main problem with new laws or amendments to existing laws that are introduced or carried out is often that they are poorly drafted, do not take into account conflicts with other existing laws or are never designed with the thought that they will pass the constitutional test. Further, most of the terms used in the drafting are vague, arbitrarily used or not properly defined. That makes these laws prime candidates for being challenged in courts. Hence, the main purpose of these laws - that to simplify things and reduce legal wrangling - is never achieved and instead they become the subject of numerous court cases.

The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022, introduced in the Lok Sabha recently, is an example of one such law. It is no one's case that police investigations should be done with reference to outdated laws (in this case the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920) since the tools of investigation have changed with rapidly changing technology. There is definitely a need to update the law. But such upgrade cannot be at the cost of violation of right to privacy. What the new bill essentially proposes to do is to collect a huge amount of data from an expanded list of persons by even a head constable. This data will include fingerprints, palm-print impressions, foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scans, physical, biological samples (which can include taking hair and blood samples for DNA profiling), signatures, handwriting or any other examination prescribed in the Code of Criminal Procedure and some of it without the sanction of a magistrate, as is now the law. It seeks to make the police or other investigating agencies the sole judge of whose and what data to collect.

The Bill, as it stands, is not likely to pass the test of constitutionality as it uses vague terms, does not provide assurance of data protection and violates right to privacy, among other rights. It should be redrafted before being made law to ensure that the legitimate interests of the state are served without violating the rights of the individual.