Recently, an article in a leading English national daily made a thesis that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has led to our country being governed in a unitary manner, even though our constitution has laid down a federal structure of the government.
There was a cavil in the article that this unitary functioning required to be looked into and scrutinised by the Hon’ble Apex Court as being violative of our federal character.
It is relevant to point out the Central Government’s directives to all the States and Union Territories emanated under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, a law which was first enacted to tackle bubonic plague in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in former British India and Disaster Management Act, 2005.
These law are meant for controlling epidemics and national disasters by providing special powers that are required for the implementation of containment measures to prevent the spread of the disease or to manage the situation arising due to any disaster.
