Epidemic Act: in times of COVID-19
Relevance: Prelims/Mains: G.S paper II: Governance, Health & G.S paper I: Society and social issues: & G.S paper III: Disaster and disaster management.
The Epidemic Disease Act was enacted in 1897 and needs to be repealed. The Act does not provide any power to the Centre to intervene in biological emergencies. It has to be substituted by an Act which takes care of the prevailing and foreseeable public health needs, including emergencies such as BT (bioterrorism) attack and use of biological weapons by an adversary, cross border issues and international spread of diseases”
— Management of Biological Disaster Guideline, GoI, 2008
Behind the urgency to detect and quarantine suspected Covid-19 patients and the clarion call for social distancing lies a stark reality: in terms of enforcing laws to contain Covid-19, the Centre can do little on the ground.
The legal inadequacy to tackle disease outbreaks was known for long, baby steps were taken, but at the end of the day, the country was not ready when it encountered another pandemic — arguably the severest since the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed around seven million people in the country.
The main legal weapon the government possess today is the Epidemic Disease Act of 1897, a hurriedly drafted short legislation to stonewall the bubonic plague that devastated life in Bombay in 1896, forcing people to migrate out of the city.
After all, health is a state subject. Union government’s role could, at best, be advisory and coordinating in nature, since Section 2 of the Act only empowers a state to inspect people and segregate suspected patients.
The only power the Centre derives from the British Raj-era law is on “inspection of any ship or vessel leaving or arriving at any port” that comes under its jurisdiction. The Act does not even mention airports. It is understandable — there were no aeroplanes 123 years ago.
However, when the Centre drafted the 156-page Management of Biological Disaster Guideline in 2008 — followed in letter and spirit even today — the realisation came that the Epidemic Disease Act was inadequate to deal with bioterrorism and international spread of diseases.
After all, the law does not bestow the Centre any power beyond issuing advisories and coordinating. It cannot even regulate the transfer of biological samples — imagine a coronavirus sample getting stolen while being taken to a laboratory.
During the first term of the UPA government, a public health emergencies bill was drafted. But the bill went into cold storage after states called it an infringement upon their powers.
The draft bill explains in clearer terms the quarantining of suspects and isolation of the infected, in addition to empowering the Centre to direct states and district or local bodies as well as usurping powers bestowed to states under Section 3 if it is found to be “expedient and in public interests” to do so.
In addition, the proposed law also embedded a provision marking that anyone intentionally violating the law could end up paying a fine of up to `1 lakh and face imprisonment of up to two years.
This provision could have been useful now given the rising instances of Covid-19 suspects skipping quarantine.
Under current laws, police can charge someone under IPC’s Section 269 for negligent act and Section 270 for malignant act for spreading an infectious disease which is dangerous to life.
The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897
The law is meant for containment of epidemics by providing special powers that are required for the implementation of containment measures to control the spread of the disease.
The Act has been routinely used to contain various diseases in India such as swine flu, cholera, malaria and dengue. In 2018 the Act was enforced as cholera began to spread in a region of Gujarat. In 2015, it was used to deal with dengue and malaria in Chandigarh and in 2009 it was invoked in Pune to combat swine flu. In 2020 the Act is enforced in Kerala to lock down Covid-19.To lock down Covid-19 the states of India to overcome the social spreading of the Covid-19 all across India.
Section 2 of the Act reads:
- Power to take special measures and prescribe regulations as to dangerous epidemic disease
(1) When at any time the [State Government] is satisfied that [the State] or any part thereof is visited by, or threatened with, an outbreak of any dangerous epidemic disease, the [State Government], if [it] thinks that the ordinary provisions of the law for the time being in force are insufficient for the purpose, may take, or require or empower any person to take, such measures and, by public notice, prescribe such temporary regulations to be observed by the public or by any person or class of persons as [it] shall deem necessary to prevent the outbreak of such disease or the spread thereof, and may determine in what manner and by whom any expenses incurred (including compensation if any) shall be defrayed.
- Penalty.
Any person disobeying any regulation or order made under this Act shall be deemed to have committed an offence punishable under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).
- Protection to persons acting under Act.
No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against any person for anything done or in good faith intended to be done under this Act.
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