Coronavirus, Lock-down & Illegitimate use of Power

Author - Anubhav Maheshwari

Countries worldwide are taking different measures to prevent the outbreak of COVID 19 (commonly known as coronavirus) pandemic, which has resulted in 315,000 death and more than 4.71 million people infected, till writing of this blog. This pandemic was started from Wuhan in China and got transmitted to the whole world in less than 2 months. Most countries got affected by this epidemic in the form of loss of human life and probable recession in the economy; they came up with different methods to fight against it, mostly in form of social distancing through lock-downs. India too came up with such measures but with more severe restrictions as compared to other countries. On 24th of March PM Modi announces a 21-days nation-wide lockdown and after that cases were reported alleging misuse of powers provided to public servants especially to police departments. Before moving ahead, one thing needs to be cleared out-

Difference between Lock-down and curfew -

Lock-downs are different from curfew (commonly understood as S. 144 of Cr.P.C), curfews are more severe than lock-downs, under the stage of curfew every place is shut down, there is a complete ban on movement on people but under lock-downs, some necessary places are kept open and people are allowed to get out with some restrictions like- limited time for shops opening, closing of non-essential businesses and movement allowed in a medical emergency, etc..

Probably, this distinction has not been conveyed properly to public authorities especially State Police Departments, for them lock-downs are the same as curfews. It seems like they have been provided with an unrestricted license to use their stick on anyone without thinking or knowing why the person is out of his house. There are several cases, where lock-down has been treated as curfew by police personals, and they were seen forcing people not to come out of their houses even for emergencies and shutting down essential commodities shops even during restrictive timing by government. Police personals are behaving like goons and working as per their own will, harassing people and traumatizing them.

Lock-downs worldwide, a comparison –

With no present vaccine of COVID-19, social distancing seems the best possible method to slow down its transmission and to achieve social distancing between citizens; governments of various nations have come up with Lock-downs, with first started in Wuhan by the Chinese government. There is no international criterion for lock-downs; therefore nations are coming up with a different set of restrictions such as – no international movement, self-quarantine, the closing of public places and monuments.

Italy on 9th march came up with nationwide lock-down, but still, restaurants/ cafes were allowed to deliver the order, local transport was kept open for public, and grocery stores were allowed to deliver. More or less similar restrictions were put in other countries. But India took a more stringent way; on 24th March a sudden lock-down was announced with a margin window of mere 4 hours, everything except some grocery and medical stores was shut down. Due to which, people have to face various new problems, they got stuck in different parts of the country, for ex- thousands of laborers and workers stuck at Delhi – UP border due to a sudden stop of transport facilities miles away from their families forcing many of them to cover up distance on foot without food and water.

What Law says -

People breaking guidelines set up by the government can be penalized under various provisions of I.P.C.. The power of state governments to make such restriction is derived from a 19th century law i.e. Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, which provided state governments to make guidelines, fighting against such pandemic and if a person found to be violating them, can be sanctioned under section 188 of I.P.C., with imprisonment up to 6 months, or with fine. This law has been criticized on the ground, that it is a colonial law and brought by British rulers as a tool to control the movement of Indian people (colonial population) during the event of an epidemic.

A person can also be charged for an act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life under Sec. 269 and 270 of I.P.C.. Former one deals with negligent act leading to spread making act punishable with 6 months imprisonment or with fine, whereas later one i.e. Sec. 270 deals with a malignant act of an individual leading to spread of disease making it punishable with 2 years of imprisonment or with fine. So if someone without proper reasons/ permission tries to get out of his home and caught by the police, an FIR can be filed against the person and can be penalized under these provisions. But nowhere is it provided that police can use an excessive amount of force leading to harassment, misbehavior and hitting people.

Illegitimate use of power -

Several incidents have been reported where the mob/ angry people attacked police after being harassed by them. This is definitely bad, but in majority cases, the police were the one, who initially misbehave and hit people, but it is seen that now police is playing the victim card, with moral reasoning that they are protecting us from coronavirus and we are attacking them.

Recently, UP State Government, announced that people misbehaving/ attacking police or violating lock-down restrictions would be booked under National Security Act, under this act a person can be detained for a period of 12 months. After this announcement, police personals have got more power to detain anyone and depart from provisions of Cr.P.C. controlling police power to arrest someone and providing basic rights to the person arrested. Every citizen of India is provided with some basic fundamental rights, even Art. 20 and 21 are present during a national emergency, so can a lock-down cease such basic essential rights?

One thing that needs to be understood that, as per Sec. 3(1)(a) of NSA a person can be charged under it, when he poses a threat to act in such a manner prejudicial to India’s Security, Defence or Relation with foreign countries. Now the question arises- How a person violating lock-down guidelines can be a threat to any of them?

Conclusion-

There is no doubt that lock-down is an essential policy for curbing the spread of COVID 19 virus in the country, but the implementation has been marred by improper administration and with very little time for preparation. These factors have led to various negative effects on the citizens such as disproportionately affecting the working-class citizens of India, such as daily wage laborers who are struck in urban cities, unable to earn and return back to their villages.

Therefore although the intentions behind the implementation of such policy were made in good conscience, but due to the erroneous implementation it had led to excessive use of force by the police as highlighted in the article and has negatively affected the population of the country.

About Author -

Anubhav Maheshwari is a IV semester student from Institute of Law Nirma University, Ahmedabad. His Linkedin profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/anubhav-maheshwari-34917b197/.