ADMISSIBILITY OF FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION EVIDENCE IN INDIAN CRIMINAL TRIALS: AN ICT AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVE
AUTHOR – MAHALAKSHMI V, STUDENT AT THE TAMIL NADU DR. AMBEDKAR LAW UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE IN LAW
BEST CITATION – MAHALAKSHMI V, ADMISSIBILITY OF FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION EVIDENCE IN INDIAN CRIMINAL TRIALS: AN ICT AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVE, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (13) OF 2025, PG. 539-552, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
The introduction of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) and India’s new criminal legal framework—comprising the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023, and the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act (CPI Act), 2022—has fundamentally shifted fingerprint evidence from a traditional forensic discipline to a high-volume, ICT-enabled domain. This paper undertakes a doctrinal analysis of the legal and technical requirements governing the admissibility of this evidence in Indian criminal trials. It establishes that admissibility now rests on a critical duality: the traditional judicial acceptance of the science as reliable expert opinion (BSA Section 39) must be seamlessly integrated with the stringent procedural standards for electronic records (BSA Section 63). Key findings highlight that the constitutionality of the NAFIS database is intrinsically threatened by the CPI Act’s mandatory 75-year data retention period, which is highly vulnerable to challenge under the proportionality test inherent in Article 21. Furthermore, admissibility relies entirely on procedural compliance, specifically the mandatory Section 63(4) Certificate (KsandK, 2023), which requires accurate documentation of digital integrity via hash value protocols. The current lack of mandatory algorithm validation and standardized forensic training poses significant technical risks to the evidentiary reliability of automated matches. The paper concludes that without immediate policy reforms to standardize protocols, ensure algorithm transparency and harmonizes retention policies with constitutional mandates, the integrity and continued admissibility of this cornerstone of forensic evidence will remain precarious.
Keywords: Fingerprint Recognition; Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS); National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS); Bharatiya Sakshyam Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023; Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act (CPI Act) 2022; Electronic Evidence; Admissibility; Right to Privacy (Article 21); Chain of Custody (CoC); Forensic Science.