UP: Allahabad high court advises police to spread awareness rather than putting lockdown violators in lockup

AGRA: The Allahabad high court has advised the police authorities to spread awareness about adversities of lockdown violation instead of putting violators in jails which are already over crowded.
While disposing off the petition filed by local residents in Agra, who were booked by the police for violating lockdown restrictions, the bench comprising Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh stated, “in our opinion, it would be more advisable to create awareness and consciousness amongst people rather than putting them in jail pr lockups which are already overcrowded”.
The court was hearing a petition, seeking quashing of FIR lodged against seven persons including Munna, Dilshad and Sharafat for violating lockdown restrictions on May 4 in Tajganj area. All of them were booked under section 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of IPC and for violating prohibitory orders by the Agra police.
The court observed that the only allegation against petitioners was that the protocol of social distancing was not followed by the crowd of 8-10 people at a public place, however, there was no allegation of any “untoward incident” occurring at the place.
The court noted the petitioners’ stand, who informed the court that they were distributing food packets amongst the poor persons in the locality, when some people were collected on the spot. The petitioners further stated that they made all efforts to disburse them.
The court ordered that the petitioners will not be arrested in the case till submission of the police report.
The court was further of the opinion that the petitioners should be granted an opportunity to mend themselves, it is provided that all of them file an undertaking before the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Agra stating that they will follow all norms and protocol of Covid-19 and will not breach them in future. The SSP shall do the needful considering the undertaking given by the petitioners herein, stated the court.
The court also stated, “there is no doubt that the denizens of the city are under obligation to follow the protocol of social distancing in collective fight of the country with pandemic Covid-19. It is the responsibility of each and every person to be aware of the protocol and see that others follow it strictly”.