Wash your hands, stay inside the house, quarantine yourself and run away and save the lives of others. People all over the world are facing this biological crisis as we all face the wreath destruction of one enemy, namely COVID-19, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Day after day, we hear new words like containment, quarantine, hotspot and many more. Pandemic is one of the most common words that most people know, but many of them are still confused with pandemic, epidemic and epidemic.
The pandemic is essentially the generalized spillover of a disease over the entire country or the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a pandemic as a “worldwide spread of a new disease”. On the other hand, epidemic disease is a disease that affects several people at the same time, and spreads from person to person in a locality where the disease is not always prevalent. The WHO specifies that the epidemic is occurring at the level of a region or a community. It is essentially a “temporary prevalence of a disease”. Although the words epidemic and pandemic can be easily confused as they both include the term. But here is an unsolvable rule for using the prefixes of these two words EPI and PAN. Epi is a Greek word meaning “on, on, near, at”. Wheareas Pan means “All”. The epidemic is the explosion of something that is unwanted and can happen in the blink of an eye.
INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS AND PREPARATION.
Disaster management is an essential function of public health law. National laws and contingency plans should take into account international obligations for managing public health emergencies, including the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). The goal of the IHR is to prevent and manage public health risks resulting from the international spread of disease, while avoiding unnecessary interference with international traffic and commerce. The revised IHR (2005) was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2005 and is binding on all WHO Member States and provides a regulatory framework for the international management of public health emergencies. The Public Health Law is also one of the prevailing laws at the international level to fight the pandemic and depending on the involvement of the country or the world during the pandemic, the WHO also publishes certain guidelines from time to time according to the requirements, as it is issued during the COVID-19 outbreak. But the shortcoming is that it is sometimes not binding, that is, the country is not required to follow it.
CAN THE INDIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK DEAL WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?
Laws are designed for the betterment and welfare of society as well as the country, but the law will not prevail unless it is strictly enforced. It is rightly said that “if we want respect for the law, we must first make it respectable”.
Around the world, many methods such as tracing, social isolation lockdown and quarantine are used to mitigate the COVID-19 coronavirus). The matter of concern is what are all the laws in India that are playing a major role in the plunge of this pandemic. I will start with our Grundnorm, which is our Constitution.
Public health and sanitation is the responsibility of state and local government, while the Union government manages port quarantine, interstate migration and quarantine. Only about eight states and union territories in India have public health legislation. As an example, the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act of 1939 establishes public health councils and provides for the supply of drainage water, sanitation facilities, etc. ART. 253 of the constitution authorizes the Union government to enact a law to give effect to the International Health Regulations which call for the establishment of mechanisms to prevent, protect against control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease . The union government has invoked its powers under the 2005 Disaster Management Act to improve COVID-19 preparedness and containment in hospitals. Article 52 of the law states that if someone spreads the false news, they will be imprisoned for 1 year.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has advised states to invoke the provisions of section 2 of the Epidemic Disease Act 1897. According to the International Health Regulations 2005, India must put in place an appropriate public health response to the international spread of disease. This is done through the integrated disease surveillance program. This ACT was designed to activate the machinery of government, there is a considerable threat of a dangerous epidemic disease and not as a code to establish general public health systems. Section 270 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE states that anyone who maliciously commits an act which is, and knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of a life-threatening disease, will be punished. a term of imprisonment of either description for a period of up to 2 years or with a fine or both
Many state regulations have also been invoked, such as BIHAR Epidemic Disease Regulation 2020, UP Epidemic Disease Regulation 2020, DELHI Epidemic Disease Regulation 2020, allow government officials to admit and to isolate a person in certain situations. . . The Supreme Court and various high courts have also issued various directives amid the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown. The Apex Court has issued guidelines for courts to switch to video conferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic by exercising its plenary power under the ART. 142 of the Constitution.
The Allahabad High Court declared that all courts subordinate to the Allahabad High Court of Justice and all commercial courts, traffic accident compensation courts and procurement, rehabilitation and UP state land resettlement will be open to work by adopting certain measures such as the clean-up of the courts and he also said that urgent matters will be dealt with by videoconference.
The steps taken by the Supreme Court and the High Courts are very appreciable, it is rightly underlined that the show must CONTINUE.
HOW COVID-19 CHALLENGES THE FABRIC OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION?
There is no doubt that the lockdown is a necessary step taken to prevent the individual from the pandemic, but there are few claims that it violates basic rights like ART 21 which includes many rights. If someone says that ART 21 is violated then they will know that they are talking about the right to life and if these measures are taken by the government it is only for the protection of our lives they are taking place just for the sake of it. a better future. . The current situation poses a new test for the executive and the judiciary every day. For the executive, it is a question of applying the law of the land and guaranteeing the fundamental rights provided for in the Indian Constitution. For the judiciary, it is the test to enforce rights that have been denied by the state. In an attempt to maintain and protect the constitutional fabric, the executive and the judiciary must constantly reassess the situation. The right to privacy and the right to education have also been undermined. The promotion of students from grades 1 to 8 will somehow weaken their concepts and its effect is also seen in the competitions. Although online classes continue, there are also students who do not even have a mobile or internet connection and some of them live in villages, what about their studies. The government has launched the Arogya Setu app which somewhere violates the right to privacy by tracing an individual’s movement and a personal data breach also takes place, but at the same time it should be noted that for our sake be, we can help save our country by following the standards and guidelines given by the government. The right to privacy was considered a fundamental right in Justice KS Puttaswamy v. Union Of India. ART 14 has also been violated as migrant workers suffer greatly amid the lockdown. I just have a question why the buses weren’t sent to these migrant workers for their rescue because when the Kota students who were in their hostels asked to go home they were provided to the buses so why not to workers? The constitution is designed for the welfare of the country, no one should be undermined.
The pandemic has led to various undesirable circumstances which must be cured quickly or else it may lead to the apocalypse. For the first time our borders are sealed, our airports are silent. But the Indian travel industry, airlines are rescuing stranded people and bringing them home. This is the true face of Indian hospitality. It is the true heart of incredible India. Hotels have opened their doors to medical workers who are fighting on the front lines. Restaurants light fires in their kitchens to feed the hungry. Business may be closed, but their hearts are wide open. I salute the frontliners and thank them for making us believe in a better future. Harsh action must be taken against those who misbehave with frontliners and coronavirus warriors. Laws need to be better implemented so that it can work for prevention and protection against this pandemic.
Views are personal
The author is a 5th year student at Invertis University, Bareilly