Covid-19: Lawyer moves Bombay HC against Epidemic Diseases Act

The lawyer, Harshal Mirashi, has also filed an application for an interim order to restrain the Maharashtra government from re-imposing a Covid-19 lockdown

A lawyer has moved the Bombay high court challenging the constitutional validity of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and sought a direction to forthwith stop its enforcement.

Bombay high court. (File photo)

The Supreme Court last week refused to entertain Harshal Mirashi’s petition and asked him to approach the high court. Mirashi has also filed an application for an interim order to restrain the Maharashtra government from re-imposing a Covid-19 lockdown.

Mirashi believes Covid-19 is nothing more that cough and cold that has been blown out of proportion by “certain elements” to make undue profit by instilling fear in the people’s minds.

He is against the forced use of mask and quarantine, which he believes amounts to deprivation of liberty of citizens. Mirashi calls quarantine a breach of the fundamental rights that causes psychological issues.

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 threating the rights.