A day before the Hindu new year,
Prime Minister of India addressed the nation at 8 pm and declared three weeks
lockdown across India. While addressing he said “every state of the country,
every Union territory, district, municipality, village, street, and locality is
being put under lockdown. This is infact a kind of curfew that is being
imposed.” This statement brought into our notice, two terms that are lockdown
and curfew.
People often tend to get confused
between both the terms and consider them synonymous. But both the terms have separate meanings and different
aspects attached to them. In this article, an attempt has been made to clear the
meaning of lockdown and curfew, the difference between them, and legal validity of
both the terms along with consequences of violation of lockdown and curfew.
Meaning
Lockdown
Lockdown is not a legal term.
Lockdown is used to define the action taken by the Government and situation
described by Government officials where free movement of people is restricted
with an exception of travelling for buying essential goods and services.
Everyone is instructed to stay indoors. A popular version of lockdown is the home quarantine
during the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdown is an useful and widely used
measure to restrain people from leaving home.
Curfew
Curfew is also not a legal term. This term is used in common
parlance as powers available to executive magistrates under section 144 of
Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. Curfew is a stricter mandate to keep people inside their
places. It is announced according to the state regulations and in emergency
situations. People are forced to stay indoors during a set number of hours. If
a curfew does not comply with it can lead to the imposition of penalty or even arrest.
Difference Between Lockdown and
Curfew
In the case of a lockdown, the order is issued
by District Collector or Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Whereas, in case of
curfew it is the District Magistrate or Police Commissioner or executive
magistrate who has the power to impose curfew u/s 144 of Criminal Procedure
Code, 1973. Police authorities have no power to arrest any person in case of
lockdown but during curfew, they can arrest/detain the violators. Essential
services can be accessed during lockdown whereas, in the case of curfew only
emergency services are accesisible. In the Current situation, some states have
vehemently declared curfew with stricter regulations only with an exception
that essential services will remain open for public access. Generally, Curfew is
imposed for a short term as to check law and order problems like riots,
terror activities or insurgency. On the other hand, lockdown is a long term
measure in order to restrict the large scale movement of the public.
Thus, a lockdown is less restrictive
than curfew.
Public
health
Entry 6 of the constitution of India
mentions about State list which empowers the
states to make laws on Public health, sanitation; hospitals and
dispensaries.
The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 gives
the state authority to exercise necessary measures to control an epidemic and
also empowers the Central Government to take measures for inspections and
detention of ship under sections 2 & 2A respectively.
This Act came
into effect after the “Bubonic Plague”
of 1896 in the Bombay City which created havoc and forced the migration of
people from the city.
It is a notable
fact that the Central Government in their official notifications did not use
the term lockdown and curfew. Although an extraordinary action was taken to
tackle the extraordinary situation and the Centre declared the coronavirus as “notified
disease” on 14th March 2020 making Disaster Management Act, 2005 applicable to this situation. Sars COV-2 pandemic caused substantial
loss to life and countries which have world-class health care systems have also been suffering from a shortage of
ventilators and the other equipment.
The gravity of the threat posed by COVID-19
has proved beyond the healing capacity of Indian health care system.
The Central
Government has rightly acted by declaring the COVID-19 as a disaster. Under Disaster
Management Act,2005 the Prime Minister is an ex- officio chairperson of the
National Disaster Management Authority u/s
3(2)(a) and is empowered to take action for prevention and mitigation of
disaster u/s 6(2)(i). U/S 10(2)(1) the guidelines for the
social distancing have been issued by the national executive committee.
The step taken by the Central Government
is full proof and legally warrantable even though public health is state
subject.
What Police or administrative authorities can do with violators?
The videos circulated on social
media is evident of the Police using force on people and punishing them for
violation of lockdown rules and in some cases the Police officials are
requesting people to stay back indoors. Here are some of the legal implications
of violation of “lockdown” and “curfew”.
The
ministry of home affairs maintained in its guidelines that if any person found
violating the orders or regulations issued, can be charged u/s 188 of Indian
Penal Code, 1860. In case of lockdown the Police cannot arrest a person however
if a person gets adversarial to authorities violating orders, Police has the
power to arrest the person u/s 269 and 270 of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The
offences under these sections are cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable in
nature.
Punishment
for such offences is given u/s 269 which extends upto 6months of imprisonment
or fine or both.
And u/s 270, the punishment prescribed
is, maximum imprisonment up to 2years or fine or both.
There are two more terms which we
have come across during this period, that is “quarantine” and “isolation”.
Quarantine is derived from the word “quarantena”
which means ‘forty days’. In the 14th
century the venice city was attacked by “Black Death Plague”, then the boats were not allowed to enter the
city and quarantined for forty days. Thus the word can be understood to mean
prescription of activities and for separation of a suspected person from others.
Isolation refers to the separation
of ill or contaminated patients from other non-infected persons in such a
manner as to stop the spread of infection or contamination. The terms are
defined under the “Indian Aircraft
(Public Health) Rules, 1955. If any person is quarantined or kept in
isolation and he escapes from the
prescribed quarantine, then the
authorities can book him u/s 271 of IPC. Further punishment can be imposed
which may extend to 6months of imprisonment or fine or with both.
However,
a more suitable way for the police in dealing with people during such an emergency situation would be to find
people who are found violating orders.
It
is an unfortunate emergency situation that the world is facing presently. The
way this virus is spreading, it has proved very dangerous for mankind and
maintaining social distancing has become the need of these times. It is the
pious obligation of the citizens to follow the orders and guidelines issued by
the Government of India. Being adversarial to cops and behaving like
irresponsible citizens will definitely bring troubles. People are talking about
their fundamental rights being affected but it becomes inevitable to mention
that no fundamental right is absolute in nature. There is a qualification
clause for every fundamental right for a greater cause and no right is absolute
or free from restrictions which are in turn directed towards maintaining public
health.
Currently, we are in the phase of unlockdown. Viewing the present situation, People are experiencing unrest, mental breakdown and several issues of mental health have emerged during this phase. For the extraordinary crisis of such kind, we need to take extraordinary measures so as to contain the situation and hence the nation wants its citizens to fight and stand unitedly against this virus.
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By- Anupam Pandey, 4th year student of Lords Universal College of Law and currently he is pursuing B.L.S LL.B.
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