After a wait of 15 years, the DNA (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be introduced in the parliament on Thursday.

What does the bill propose?

The bill proposes to establish regulatory centres, standards for DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) testing and supervise the laboratories authorised to carry out the tests.

The proposed bill seeks to establish a DNA Profiling Board and DNA Data Banks to help regulate the tests.

The board will be in charge of granting accreditation to the laboratories while the data bank will keep a record of the tests from these labs where the authorities will make sure that the information is not misused.

The accredited laboratories will be the only ones allowed to carry out the test and analysis.

The information received from any test will have to be fed into the closest DNA Data Bank.

The DNA Data Banks will be set up regionally and thereafter, the regional databank will have to feed it into the national databank.

The DNA Data Banks will keep in check these five indices for testing — DNA samples picked up from crime scenes, for suspects or undertrials, and for offenders, missing persons, and unidentified dead bodies.

The proposed bill directs a jail term which may extend three years and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh on those who leak the information stored in such facilities.

As of yet, DNA testing has been extremely accurate in pinning down the identity of persons from their DNA samples and has also pinned down establishing the biological relationships between individuals.

A strand of hair is sufficient for the test. For crime cases, the suspect's blood on the victim's cloth can help in ascertaining the culprit.

Arguments against the passing of the bill

The ones against the passing of the bill argue that the information is too vital and if leaked, can cause more crimes instead.

The ones against argue that the proposed bill does not give clarity on questions such as whose DNA can be collected and under what circumstances, whether the consent of the individual is required and who can access the database.

The information retrieved from the DNA can also give information such as the victim's allergies, susceptibility to a disease, genetic traits, etc can be misused.