DNA Profiling Bill to be presented before Parliament by year-end

The draft DNA Profiling Bill, prepared by the Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in association with the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar), is expected to be placed before Parliament by the end of this year.

CDFD director Syed Husnain said that the first draft of the Bill was currently being circulated to the ministries concerned and ""I am hopeful that this will be presented before Parliament this year".

He said that a legislation on DNA profiling was sought to be enacted so as to ensure quality compliance by those engaged in such activity. It would also be useful in disseminating the data of criminals.

"It is required because the finality of the court judgments pertaining to criminal cases is being questioned. There are more than 100 cases where final judgments with regard to convictions have been reopened so far. In many of these cases, the persons who are convicted are found to be innocent based on DNA profiling," Husnain told newspersons here on Thursday.