AAYUSH PANWAR | The whole country is burning in the fire of COVID-19 and the situation now seems to be uncontrollable after what happened in Nizammudin. It seems to have gone out of hand and is a time to see the sufficiency of the laws that India have to counter the situation.
India mainly have two law to deal with the situation of such disaster The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and The Disaster Management Act (DMA), 2005. But both the acts seem to be poles apart and are creating contradictions in the current situation. The Disaster Management Act is central legislation and grants more power to the National Disaster Management Authority. Section 10 of the act lays down the power to make the plan for the whole country. But in the current situation it might not work. The spread of this disease is due to different factors in different states. Like in the Punjab it was due to the NRI’s that came there, in Rajasthan it was due to the Italian tourist, in Delhi it is because of the Tablighi Jamaat and subsequently different reasons for different states. Since the problem is different, the solution should be different for different states. Though during such times there is a need for a strong central power but the states should be given the autonomy to tackle the situation which they deem fit in the best interest of the public. The example of this would be Orissa where the Disaster Management Authority was made in 1999, much before this central legislation, which had the greater autonomy in various matter. It is one of the reasons why the situation is in control there. The older legislation, The Epidemic Diseases Act, gave more powers to the state government in the time of such disasters. Section 2 of the act clearly empowers the state government to make rules and regulation for the management of such disasters. The central government can only make provision regarding the ships or vessels arriving at the port and the sailors. It is not empowered to make any laws for the internal management and mitigation of disaster in the country.
Another problem is regarding the management authority at the grass root level which is definitely the district level. Though the Section 25 of DMA is regarding the establishment of the District Disaster Management Authority, but it has not reached the ground reality. Only few states like that of Orissa has the efficient and autonomous authorities at the district level, in the rest of the states there is no efficient work done at such level.
Further it is the requirement of the time to have some harsh penalties for the people like that of Kanika Kapoor and the Maulana Saad, but there is no such thing in the Indian law. The Section 3 of The Epidemics Disease Act provide for the punishment under the Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code which is imprisonment for six months, or fine of thousand rupees or both. The Section 51 DMA provides for the punishment for non-compliance with the directions of the authorities under the act, which extends to one year. The punishment for such noncompliance should be somehow more strict and severe though it cannot be like in the countries like Philippines and Iran where it is death penalty.
At the end it is the time for the country to have an efficient and strict laws so that the country does not face the 1918 situation where around 6% of the population died from the Spanish flu. It is the time for the government to show the power of being the most prepared country to face such situations. The government should now become the Corona Warrior in the real sense.
Stay Home, Stay Safe.
Aayush Panwar is an undergraduate student of Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. He can be reached at aayushpanwar1209@gmail.com
Photo Source: New Indian Express
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