New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it intends to introduce a Bill on DNA profile in the Monsoon Session of Parliament which would help to create a database of DNA profiles that would be used to identify unclaimed bodies and help find missing persons.
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand gave this information before a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud hearing a PIL filed by NGO Lokniti Foundation in 2012, which raised an important issue of creating DNA profiles to trace missing children and detect unidentified bodies. Taking on record this submission, the Bench disposed of the PIL.
According to the petitioner, about 40,000 unidentified bodies are disposed of every year removing every trace of their once earthly existence. Pointing out that there is a strong link between missing persons and unidentified bodies, the PIL suggested keeping a DNA profile of the bodies before their disposal. This it said could help breaking the news of the death to those families waiting the homecoming of their near and dear ones who have gone missing.
Petitioner’s counsel Ashok Dhamija said the unidentified bodies could be because of a serious crime and “since the bodies cannot be identified using traditional methods, the perpetrators of the possible crime remain untraced.”
