Regulating Forensic Genetic Genealogy in Criminal Investigations: A Comparative Legal Analysis with Normative Framework for India

Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG) represents one of the most consequential innovations in criminal investigative science of the twenty-first century. By cross-referencing crime-scene DNA profiles with consumer genealogy databases, law enforcement agencies have succeeded in identifying perpetrators of cold-case homicides, sexual assaults, and other serious crimes that conventional forensic methods failed to resolve. Yet this powerful technique simultaneously implicates the genetic privacy of millions of individuals who never voluntarily submitted their DNA to any law enforcement authority. The paper undertakes a comparative legal analysis of FGG governance across three jurisdictions—the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union—exposing the tension between investigative utility and constitutional or human rights commitments to genetic privacy and informational self-determination. Against this comparative backdrop, the paper examines the fragmented state of Indian forensic DNA law, comprising the Code of Criminal Procedure (and its successor, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023), the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act 2022, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and the twice-lapsed DNA Technology Regulation Bill. Drawing on the Supreme Court of India's landmark ruling in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) and a proportionality framework, the paper proposes an original normative framework—the Forensic Genetic Genealogy Regulation Model (FGGRM) for India, encompassing statutory authorisation, judicial oversight, privacy-protective database design, purpose limitation, non-discrimination safeguards, and robust audit mechanisms.