Gujarat to appeal all lockdown violation cases rejected by courts

<p id="content">The Gujarat government's Director of Prosecution has ordered public prosecutors of all districts to file appeals of all cases rejected by the lower district courts regarding lockdown violations in the state.

There were over 1.5 lakh cases for violations of lockdown and quarantine filed by the Gujarat Police during the nationwide lockdown.

Director of Prosecution, Paresh Dhora, in a letter, asked all district public prosecutors to file an appeal or revision of the cases rejected by various district courts pertaining to violations of Section 188 of IPC, i.e violation of lockdown provisions.

"The crime of violation of IPC 188 is a cognizable offense, which means the police are empowered according to the provisions. Besides that, under the lockdown circumstances, the orders pertaining to IPC 188 also authorizes the police to file complaints of lockdown violations," the letter said.

"Moreover, the apex court has dismissed the writ petition filed by Dr Vikram Singh vs Union of India to cancel the FIRs of violations under section 188, which means that the FIRs of lockdown violations are endorsed by the Supreme Court. Looking at all these, the orders by the Vadodara magisterial court and other such courts in districts of canceling the FIRs can be challenged," the letter said.

Dhora has ordered the public prosecutors to send proposals of appeal or revision of all the FIRs filed to the District Magistrates concerned and after sanctioning of proposals, file revision applications as soon as possible in higher courts.

The Gujarat Police had filed over 1.5 lakh cases for lockdown and quarantine violations in the state. More than 27,600 people had been arrested using the CCTV footage and drone camera.</p>.