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"He has contended that the 1897 law infringes on fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Mirashi has blamed the erratic enforcement of the Epidemic Diseases Act for threatening the rights." @htTweets https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/covid-19-lawyer-moves-bombay-hc-against-epidemic-diseases-act/story-VS24UXaXeWTdSeq5VQL4VN.html
"the Act had an authoritarian streak to it right from the beginning... 'public must trust the discretion of the government' – and second, in terms of the wide-ranging and almost unlimited powers it conferred on local authorities." @TheWireScience https://science.thewire.in/health/epidemic-diseases-act-india-pandemic/
Summary of why this law hasn't been updated: "If the government thinks these laws are good enough to fit in the existing circumstances, then there is nothing wrong. It is for the government to decide on the relevance of the laws." @livemint https://www.livemint.com/news/india/a-123-yr-old-act-to-combat-coronavirus-in-india-experts-say-nothing-wrong-11584182501707.html
"The Epidemic Diseases Act...lacks a specific public health focus. It does not describe the duties of the government in preventing and controlling epidemics. The Act emphasises the power of the government, but is silent on the rights of citizens." https://ijme.in/articles/the-epidemic-diseases-act-of-1897-public-health-relevance-in-the-current-scenario/?galley=pdf
"By emphasizing this colonial dimension of medicine, Arnold highlights the centrality of the body to political authority in British India and shows how medicine both influenced and articulated the intrinsic contradictions of colonial rule." https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520082953/colonizing-the-body
21 days of restrictions have now extended to 9 months. "The EDA is of 19th century vintage, enacted by a colonial power with a ruthless administrative apparatus uncontrolled by a constitution based on fundamental individual rights." @thewire_in https://thewire.in/law/is-the-national-lockdown-in-india-constitutionally-valid
"Every High Court in the country has the power to strike down a law for being in the teeth of Article 245, 246 or Part III of the Constitution" #SupremeCourtofIndia
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/high-courts-also-have-the-power-to-strike-down-central-acts-supreme-court-asks-petitioner-challenging-epidemic-act-to-move-hc-165948 @LiveLawIndia
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/high-courts-also-have-the-power-to-strike-down-central-acts-supreme-court-asks-petitioner-challenging-epidemic-act-to-move-hc-165948 @LiveLawIndia
