Section 196, The Criminal Procedure Act, 2024

(1) A Police Officer of or above the rank of Inspector orthe Police Officer for the time being in charge of a police station shall, whenever a person is charged and prosecuted before a Court with an offence, whether the offence is to be tried summarily or on indictment, or whether the person has or has not been admitted to bail, cause to be taken for use and record, photographs, measurements, thumbprints, fingerprints or other scientific methods of identification of the person. 103102 . Direct Form 37 Address and execution of warrants. Enforcement of warrant. with regard to warrants executed outside jurisdiction. Error or omission not to affect legality or execution of Forms. Sealing of Orders, etc. not generally necessary. Fingerprint etc. (2) Where a conviction of the person is not followed as a result of or in connection with, the prosecution, then, and in every such case, the photographs of the person shall, together with the records of the person charged and prosecuted; measurements, thumbprints, fingerprints or other scientific methods of identification, be handed over to him or if this is not possible, be destroyed or may be retained by the police. (3) A Police Officer of or above the rank of Inspector or the Police Officer for the time being in charge of a police station shall take all necessary action and to do all such things as may be reasonably required for the proper and efficient execution of this section. (4) A Police Officer may, where a thumbprint or a fingerprint is likely to become an exhibit in a criminal case, take for comparison the thumbprints or fingerprints or other biometric data of a person who is reasonably suspected of having made that thumbprint or fingerprint. (5) A person who refuses to submit to the taking and recording of his photographs, measurements, thumbprints, fingerprints or other scientific methods of identification shall be taken before a Magistrate who shall, on being satisfied that the person- (a) has been charged and prosecuted before a Court with an offence; (b) is reasonably suspected of having made a thumbprint or fingerprint likely to become an exhibit in a criminal case; or (c) has left on the scene of a crime or on a document or thing or a physiological or bodily fluid or substance relevant to a criminal case make an order, as he thinks fit, authorising a Police Officer to take the measurements, photographs, thumbprints, fingerprints or other scientific methods of identification of that person.