New Delhi: The deadly COVID-19 virus, which has killed more than 5,000 people worldwide, has been around for less than six months, but to combat the pandemic, the Center invoked a 123-year-old Epidemic Diseases Act, which has been used to implicate the spread of various diseases: swine flu, cholera, malaria and dengue.
Constitutional experts say that if the government believes that a colonial-era law is contributing to the outbreak, then there is no point in making that decision.
Three days ago, a resolution was made at an assembly of cabinet secretaries for states and union territories to invoke the provisions of segment 2 of the law, which will make the Department of Health’s recommendation enforceable.
The Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897, which is still applicable in the context of outbreaks of fashionable diseases in the country, is applied to curb outbreaks of diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, and cholera.
India is currently battling the deadly virus, which has killed two other people in the country and more than 70 cases of COVID-19 have tested positive. More than 119,100 people have reportedly been infected worldwide.
Constitutional experts say many colonial-era laws continue to exist in law, as governments over the years have thought they were effective enough to allow for the prevention of harmful epidemic diseases.
Former P. D. T. General Secretary Achary of Lok Sabha said: “Many colonial laws still exist, for example, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the census that started before independence continues and the Hunger Act was also created before independence. Laws are intelligent It is enough to adapt to existing circumstances, so there is nothing wrong with the government being responsible for the adequacy of legislation. “
Subhash Kashyap, a constitutional expert and former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha, says there is nothing wrong with the government being willing to enforce a colonial-era law as it still exists in the statute, and perhaps governments have not realized it over time. wanting to modify the law.
“The Law Commission advises the government on the amendment of a law and its current relevance. The current government has already repealed many laws, but it has also retained some colonial-era laws,” Kashyap said.
The two constitutional experts have the tension that there is no desire to modify a law because it has existed since the era before independence. According to reports, in 2018, the law was invoked when cholera began to spread in a village in Gujarat. In 2015, the law came into force to fight dengue and malaria in Chandigarh; and in 2009 it was implemented in Pune to combat the swine flu epidemic.
Section 2 of the Act authorizes state and UT governments to take special measures and formulate them to address any outbreak. The Section reads:
(1) When at any time the State Government is pleased that the State or any component thereof is visited or threatened by an epidemic of harmful epidemic disease, the State Government, if it considers that the ordinary provisions of the law then in force are inadequate for that purpose, they would, or require or authorize any user to take, such measures and, upon public notice, prescribe such transitory regulations to be observed by the public or by any user or users’ elegance. as deemed mandatory to prevent the occurrence of such disease or its spread, and possibly in what manner and through whom expenses incurred (including reimbursement, if applicable) will be covered;
(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions, the State Government may take measures and prescribe regulations for the inspection of persons traveling by rail or otherwise, and for the segregation of persons in hospitals, transient accommodation, or otherwise. The inspector suspects that he is inflamed with such an illness.
Section 3 refers to penalties: “Any user who disobeys any regulation or order made by this Act shall be deemed to have committed an offence punishable under segment 188 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860);
Section 4; Protection of persons acting in accordance with the law: “No suit or other legal proceeding may be brought against anything that has been done or provided for in intelligent religion under this Act (legal cover for enforcing the law).
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