639. Photographing of accused persons, [§ 12, Act V, 1861].
(a)Photographs of prisoners should only be taken by order of a Superintendent or officer of higher rank.(b)Photographs should only be taken -(i)in connection with an investigation, inquiry or trial; and(ii)in the case generally of prisoners accused of classes of offences for which a photographic record is deemed necessary.(c)(i)In respect of photographs taken under clause (b)(i) the Superintendent, when sanctioning the taking of the photograph, will state the number of copies to be printed from the negative. When a photographer, other than an officer of the photographic bureau, is employed, an officer not below the rank of Sub-Inspector shall be present when the photograph is taken; he shall also be present when the negative is developed and when the prints are taken. When the number of prints ordered by the Superintendent has been completed, the Sub-Inspector shall take possession of the negative and prints and forward them in a sealed cover to the Superintendent, who will keep the negative in his personal custody. When the investigation, enquiry or trial is completed, the negative and prints will be forwarded to the Deputy Inspector-General, Criminal Investigation Department, for disposal. The same procedure shall be adopted when an officer of the department below the rank of Sub-Inspector is employed to take the photograph, but when the officer taking such photograph is of or above the rank of Sub-Inspector it will not be necessary for another officer to the present. [Section 2(b) of the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920],(ii)Negatives sent by post should be carefully packed in soft paper and enclosed in a wooden box. Card-board boxes should not be used, owning to the danger of damage from the post-office stamp.(d)Photographs of persons arrested in connection with an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or upwards should be taken only in cases where the place of occurrence and the place of arrest are so far apart that it would cause unnecessary inconvenience to take the arrest person or persons to the spot without applying the preliminary test.(e)A photograph intended to be used for the purpose of identification should be placed in a sealed cover with eight or ten photographs of other persons, taken under similar conditions and despatched by the Superintendent in whose district the case is registered to the officer deputed to conduct the identification or to the Superintendent, if the identification is to take place in another district, with instructions that the packet should not be opened until the time of identification, and then only in the presence of the witness whose identification is to be tested, and either of the Magistrate or of the two or more respectable persons invited to preside over the identification.(f)(i)Photographs for record under clause (b)(ii), will ordinarily only be taken after the conviction of accused persons. But in the case of persons accused of drugging, coining, note forgery, professional swindling, railway thefts and professional pocket-picking on a second conviction, murder of women accompanied with robbery, and also in the case of all persons belonging to the registered criminal tribes, e.g., Burwars, Sanauriahs, Chain Mallahs, Marwari Bauriahs, Muzaffarpur Sonars, Jadua Brahmins and Bhamptas, photographs should be taken for record whether the accused arrested is convicted or not; provided that, except in the case of criminals tribes, the negatives and photographs of unconvicted persons of the classes mentioned above must always remain in the personal custody of the Deputy Inspector-General, Criminal Investigation Department. They should be placed in sealed covers in an iron safe, the key of which will remain either with the Deputy Inspector-General himself or his Assistant.(ii)Mounted copies shall be kept of all photographs taken or received, and shall be classified according to the classes mentioned in Appendix XXXIII.Copies of photographs in Excise or Opium Act cases shall be supplied to the Excise Bureau.(g)Formal certificates of the precautions and of the identification proceedings should be made by the officer responsible and attached to the investigation record. The certificates in the forms below should be signed by the officer taking the photographs and by the officer conducting the identification proceedings:Certificate of officer taking the photograph.I certify that under the orders of the Superintendent I took photographs of.........son of..........of village........ police-station.......... district ...........accused or suspected in case No.............of police-station........ district......... That all the negatives taken by me and the prints struck of from the negative have been forwarded to the Superintendent.Note. - If the photograph was taken by photographer not belonging to the Photographic Bureau, the officer present under clause (c)(i) will submit the certificate stating that he was present when the photograph was taken, developed and printed, and that all the negatives and prints were forwarded by him to the Superintendent.Certificate to be given by the officer conducting the identification.Certified that I received a sealed cover from .........and that this cover was not opened until the time of the identification. I also certify that when the cover was opened the following witnesses were present................... The packet, when opened, contained............. photographs, and these were all handed together to the witness who, in the presence of the abovenamed witnesses to the identification, picked out the photograph numbered..............Note. - This certificate should also be signed by the witnesses to the identification.(h)Subject to the provisions of clause (f), if an untried prisoner, who has not been previously convicted, shall have been photographed, all photographs (both negatives and copies) shall be forthwith destroyed or handed over to such prisoner in the event of his being released without trial or discharged or acquitted by any Court, unless the Court or (if such person is released without trial), the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Magistrate for reasons to be recorded in writing, otherwise directs.
