Group items tagged

The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it clear that it cannot give direction to make DNA profiling mandatory in the country, for unidentified bodies. Instead it left the issue to the Centre, observing that it is for the government to explore whether magistrates can be empowered to order DNA profiling. The bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar said it cannot give any direction but asked the government to consider the issue if there's any possibility of asking magistrate courts to order such profiling, which will help families to claim unidentified bodies. "You file an affidavit whether a circular can be issued to state governments for asking magistrates to order DNA profiling of unidentified bodies," the Bench said as it asked Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra to inform the court within four weeks. In an earlier hearing, on November 16, 2009, the bench was not keen on issuing notice to the Centre on a PIL filed by a Haryana-based doctor Shamsher Malik, who sought a direction to the government for making DNA profiling of unidentified bodies mandatory.

"The Indian Army will start DNA profiling of its soldiers this year for their identification in case of mutilation of bodies during an operation, attack or any kind of mishap. "We will begin DNA profiling of soldiers from this year as the profiling centre and data bank are almost ready," Lieutenant General Naresh Kumar, Commandant of Army Hospital Research and Referral, told PTI. Being set up at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, the centre will collect the blood samples of the troops who are involved in hazardous tasks, including fighting militancy, and store them in a DNA data bank. The DNA profiling centre is being established to help in identification of bodies mutilated beyond recognition. "Now that this centre and DNA data bank are almost ready to take off, we will be able to easily recognise the mutilated dead bodies that we get during war time, from an episode of avalanches or from blast sites." "

"acebook on Wednesday began making outside applications or websites detail what private information they want from people's online profiles. Websites or applications then must get permission from users for specific data, according to Bret Taylor of Facebook. "

In a bid to establish proper identity of slum dwellers in Capital City, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is planning to conduct a biometric survey of people residing in slums. "We have already completed slum profiling of 377 slums in Bhubaneswar. We are in process of finalising the proposed biometric survey of slum dwellers living in the city," said BDA Vice-Chairman D. K. Singh here on a sidelines of a seminar on Friday. "The decision to conduct biometric survey is aimed at having actual position (number) of urban poor residing in the city. The survey would ensure that no duplication of identity takes place," Mr. Singh said. He said in future it would also help administration check bogus beneficiaries of various government schemes.

The Kerala Women's Commission has recommended to the State government to pass a resolution or to frame laws, if necessary, to make pre-marital HIV testing compulsory in the State. The Commission's recommendation, which has been listed prominently in its latest annual report, was forwarded to the government following a sample study conducted in the State in 2009-10, its chairperson D. Sreedevi said. "We have seen many cases where the women became infected with HIV after marriage. I have interacted with organisations working with HIV-positive people, where several women said that they were infected by their partners. There is no harm in ensuring that one is not HIV-positive before getting married," Ms. Sreedevi said.