On April 21, 2020, Syed Nabi a 27-year-old paralegal and social activist from Hyderabad, was enroute to distribute ration packets to stranded migrant workers during the lockdown when he was stopped by the Bahdurpura police. "I had a pass from the GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) that allowed me to distribute food to those in need during the months of lockdown," says Syed. But instead the police confiscated his bike and booked him under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1987.
Almost a year later, Syed is still battling the case in the Nampally sessions court, his next hearing coming up on March 4. "I was given an option to either pay Rs 2,000 fine and be termed guilty or fight the case paying money to a lawyer. If I pay the fine, the case will be closed, but I will be termed convicted in the records. That is not right. Several people against whom cases were booked for lockdown violation are being harassed this way. The police in the court ask what’s the big deal in paying a fine. Many people pay the fine not realising that unlike a traffic challan, these convictions become records," he points out.
Syed is one among lakhs in Telangana against whom cases were booked by the police during the COVID-19 lockdown. Police had at the time used the Epidemics Act to enforce the lockdown and combat COVID-19 related fake news. The exact number of people booked for lockdown violation is yet to be released by the police.
According to available data, the traffic police under the Cyberabad Commissionerate of Hyderabad alone booked 9 lakh cases for lockdown violations. The vehicles seized for violations were released by the police in May 2020, but only after the vehicle owners paid a fine. However, in the months that followed, those booked under the Epidemics Act kept receiving summons to the court.
The police had booked people under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and Section 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Epidemics Act.
“The problem arises when these people wish to apply for a government job, passport or higher education. There is a record on them,” points out SQ Masood, a Hyderabad based Social Activist. Masood has been urging the Telangana government to drop these cases. Most of those who were booked are people who had stepped out to get essentials, many were booked despite them being within the three-kilometre limit to move within an area set by the government, he adds.
Maqsood reasons that the Public Prosecutor who acts as a representative of the government in the court and as an officer of the court is empowered to withdraw these cases after consent of the court, “But there has to be government order asking the Public Prosecutor to do so,” says the activist, who had met with the Telangana Home Minister Mahmood Ali apprising him of the difficulty faced those accused, “The Minister said he will look into these issues” he adds.
Earlier in January 2021, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced that cases registered under section 188 of the IPC for COVID-19 lockdown violations will be withdrawn. The Uttar Pradesh Government had also withdrawn 2.5 cases booked under the section. In Tamil Nadu, the state government withdrew cases registered against lockdown violations and cases against those protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC). Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on February 24 announced that 10 lakh cases filed over lockdown violations and cases against those protesting the CAA and NRC would be withdrawn.