Justice K.S.Puttaswamy(Retd) vs Union Of India on 26 September, 2018 of handwriting samples only if necessary for the purposes of any (specific ) investigation, or in order to compare writing or signature that appears in relation to the facts of a particular case. Section 53 of the CrPC allows medical examination of a person arrested on a charge of committing an offence if reasonable grounds exist for believing that an examination of his person will afford evidence as to the commission of the offence. Similarly provisions in various other statutes such as of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (Sections 34-48); the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (Sections 17-19); the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (Sections 41-42) and the Customs Act, 1962 (Chapter 13) which allow for search, seizure or even arrest, and thereby provide access to personal information also bear a nexus with a particular crime under investigation. 216) As per the petitioners, the Investigating Agency can presently access fingerprints, only limited to cases of citizens who were arrested on the reasonable basis of having committed a crime, or were convicted of a crime, as per provisions of the Identification of Prisoners Act. In all such circumstances, not only are there adequate safeguards- such as permission from the Magistrate that collection is necessary for the purpose of investigation, but persons accused of an offence presently can claim protection under Article 20(3), thereby making it incumbent upon the investigating agency to obtain such information in accordance with law, as described above. Further, unlike the Aadhaar Act, present day criminal statutes contain provisions for destruction of some kinds of core biometric data obtained [Section 7 of the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920]. No such safeguards exist under the Aadhaar Act. 217) It is also argued that Section 33(2), which permits disclosure of identity information and authentication records under direction of an officer not below the rank of Jt. Secretary to Central Government in the interest of national security, has no provision for judicial review. The Oversight Committee does not have a judicial member. 218) Respondents submitted that Section 29 of the Aadhaar Act provides protection against disclosure of core biometric information. The biometric information cannot shared with anyone for any reason whatsoever; or used for any purpose other than generation of Aadhaar numbers and authentication under this Act. Section 8 ensure that the during authentication, biometric information of an individual is only used for submission to the Central Identities Data Repository. 219) We are of the view that most of the apprehensions of the petitioners stand assuaged with the treatment which is given by us to some of the provisions. Some of these are already discussed above and some provisions are debated in the next issue. Summary thereof, however, can be given hereunder: (a) Authentication records are not to be kept beyond a period of six months, as stipulated in Regulation 27(1) of the Authentication Regulations. This provision which permits records to be archived for a period of five years is held to be bad in law. Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/127517806/ 145