Quarantine centres can’t be used for preventive detention, says HC

‘Police can’t keep away people they think are of nuisance value’

The Bombay High Court recently held that the manner in which a trade union leader was kept in quarantine, raises suspicion and questions. The court said COVID-19 “quarantine facilities cannot be used as preventive detention or a punitive measure” by the police to keep away people, who according to them, are of “nuisance value”.

A single Bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Mahendra Singh, a member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), on behalf of his colleague K. Narayanan, CITU president of the Mumbai District Committee.

The court was informed that the police intervened while Mr. Narayanan and his colleagues were distributing food and other essentials to migrant workers in compliance with physical distancing norms in Andheri (West) on April 21. The CITU had called for a national protest to highlight the plight of migrant workers and the poor and Mr. Narayanan and his colleagues were also carrying flags and placards for distribution to participants of the protest.

The petition said, “Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Abhishek Trimukhe and senior police inspector Parmeshwar Gamane of DN Nagar police station asked Mr. Narayanan to proceed to the police station. He was then taken to a private lab in Jogeshwari, where he was tested for COVID-19 and told that the result would be sent to his phone in 48 hours. When he was about to leave, he was quarantined and his phone was confiscated.”

The court had earlier instructed the police to provide him with fresh clothes and to return his phone.

Advocate Kranti L.C. said Mr. Narayanan was deliberately and malafidely sent to the quarantine centre due to his animosity with Mr. Gamane and not because he was suspected to be a COVID-19 patient, as contended by the police. Mr. Kranti said Mr. Narayanan was not allowed to carry his mobile phone when he was sent to the quarantine centre.

The court said, “Prima facie, in the peculiar facts, there seems to be some substance in the contention. The withholding of Mr. Narayanan’s mobile, non-disclosure of his COVID-19 report, conduct of the officers and circumstances in which he was sent to the centre does raise some suspicion and questions. Quarantine facilities cannot be used by the police to keep away people, who according to them, are of nuisance value. Quarantine facilities cannot be used as preventive detention or as a punitive measure.”