Coronavirus: Supreme Court dismisses plea by ex-UP DGP to quash FIRs on lockdown violations

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea by former Uttar Pradesh police chief Vikram Singh to quash all the FIRs registered for disobeying orders on lockdown and other petty offences during the coronavirus crisis.

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A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai asked Singh's counsel senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayana as to why Section 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC should not be invoked.

"If this should not be invoked, then how can the lockdown be imposed?
You want there should be no FIR. We are wondering why such kinds of petitions are coming to this court," the bench said.

The counsel contended that more than 75,000 FIRs have been registered.
He claimed the petitioner has experience on field.

"We can't have a rule of law which is selective. You can have one rule of law for those who have to travel by chartered flights and another for the migrants and the poor workers who faced the FIR even for withdrawing money from ATMs," the counsel said.

The bench, however, remained unimpressed and dismissed the plea.

In his plea, chairman of a think tank 'Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change' (CASC), Singh submitted that registering of FIRs incessantly under Section 188 (disobeying order by public servant) of the IPC was "antithesis to Rule of
Law, and violated Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution".

He cited Section 195 of the Criminal Procedure Code saying that it mandated that only a Magistrate can take cognisance of an offence under Section 188 IPC, and that too on a complaint submitted by a public servant.

Singh asked the court to issue directions under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to the various state governments to refrain from filing complaints or registering FIRs under Section 188 or other petty offences.

"Coronavirus has caused a global pandemic, in which every person is suffering. The situation needs to be handled humanely, and it will be best to avoid adding aspects of criminality, wherever possible," he said.