Lockdown Was Imposed Suddenly, Migrants Labourers Had No Money & Food But They Were Put In Jails: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court recently observed that during the First wave of COVID, after the sudden imposition of Lockdown, n number of migrant laborers suffered, as they were put in Jails for rioting/lockdown violations just because they wanted to go to their home, even when they had no food, no income.

The Bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay observed thus in Gujarati:

"There was the sudden imposition of Lockdown, due to the arising situation at that point in time, we are nobody to comment on that...Migrant laborers had no ration, no food, shops were open, and they wanted to go home, but so many such laborers were put in jail, I had dealt with many such bail pleas...Were they offenders or victims?" 

Similarly, the Court added, during the second wave of COVID (during April 2021) people faced difficulties in procuring Remdesivir injections during the second wave but they were left in that situation to deal on their own and there have been attempts to divert the attention of the people.

"During the Second wave, the demand for Remdesivir was at its peak but you made decoy (for nabbing persons selling Remdesivir) but did you make arrangements for it?" the judge asked the Government pleader.

The Gujarat High Court also questioned the State Government on invocation of Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) in cases of unauthorized procurement and distribution of Remdesivir injections during the second wave of Covid-19.

The Bench also raised doubts over FIRs and invocation of PASA in procuration of Remdesivir and termed it a tactic to divert people's attention when they were angry over the situation in which they weren't able to get the medicine. 

"This may also lead to a question, whether the State Government is willing to resort to such stringent measures uniformly qua all the accused / citizen in all cases, without being influenced by the position of the concerned person, where complaints have come for alleged illegalities in the procurement and distribution of Ramdesivir injunctions in an unauthorized manner."

Importantly, the Court expressed its unhappiness over Ahmedabad and Vadodara police commissioners for slapping PASA on people accused of selling fake Remdesivir. The Court also kept on hinting at the distribution of 5,000 Remdesivir injections in Surat by a political party.

It may be noted that the Gujarat High Court had recently questioned the Gujarat State Government for detaining people under Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) for possessing a few Remdesivir injections while finding the act of distribution of 5K injection political party to be in "accordance with the law".

Further, referring to the period of Demonetisation, Justice Upadhyay said:

"What had happened during the demonetization, the poor people who were standing in the line, they did not have currency in hands of their own, they were standing in place of rich people who wanted to exchange their notes." 

(The relevant observations made by the Court are available from  21:00-46:50 minutes in the embedded video).