The government on Monday withdrew the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 from Lok Sabha. Amid sloganeering by opposition members over the Manipur violence, Union Minister Jitendra Singh withdrew the Bill when the House reassembled at 12 noon after an earlier adjournment. The Bill seeks to regulate the use and application of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) technology for the purposes of establishing the identity of certain categories of people, including victims, offenders, suspects, undertrials, those missing and unidentified deceased. The Bill was introduced on July 8, 2019 and referred to the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change for examination. The report of the committee was laid in Lok Sabha on February 3, 2021.
The bill seeks to address concerns related to quality, accuracy, security of data and other related matters that may arise in the use of DNA technology
Absence of privacy legislation can create complications
The DNA technology Bill is a welcome start