On Saturday 18th July 2020 a case was filed in the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate in Jaipur, Rajasthan on 104 Members of Legislative Assembly of the State for defying COVID-19 norms. These members belong to the ruling coalition. A list consisting of names of these MLAs has been attached and government officials responsible for implementing COVID-19 guidelines have been made parties.
The petition was filed by Advocate Om Prakash. It stated that on 13th July 2020, in the Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur, a contingent of around 300 people was seen along with the meeting of 104 MLAs at the Chief Minister’s residence.
The petition claimed that this accumulation was in complete violation of COVID-19 guidelines which talk about social distancing and other safety measures for the ongoing pandemic. It specified that these MLAs were seen playing football and ludo among other things and blatantly avoided the social distancing rules.
A similar situation was observed on 19th June 2020 when MLAs met at Hotel Shiv Vilas for the Rajya Sabha elections. The case has found its ground on Sections 188, 269, 270, 271 and 505 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, Sections 9 and 11 of Rajasthan Prohibition of Smoking Act and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Indian Politics has seen turmoil in this ongoing pandemic. First, the Madhya Pradesh MLAs and now the Rajasthan MLAs have publicly violating the COVID-19 guidelines. As these MLAs are representatives of the citizens, they have a huge responsibility of leading with example, one which they have unfortunately not lived up to during these testing times.
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