Around 1.2 lakh instances of violation of COVID-19 lockdown norms have been reported from across the State since March 23, and 4,947 FIRs have been registered so far, the State government told the High Court of Karnataka on Friday.
The government said complaints have been lodged under provisions of the Disaster Management (DM) Act against 59 persons for violating lockdown guidelines following the death of Kannada actor Chiranjeevi Sarja on June 7.
Meanwhile, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy pointed out that around 40% of the people coming to Cubbon Park in Bengaluru in the morning do not wear masks. The Bench emphasised the need for a machinery to receive complaints on such violations.
It was hearing a PIL petition filed by the city-based Letzkit Foundation about the violation of lockdown norms by the public as well as politicians and others.
Additional Advocate General M. Dhyan Chinnappa pointed out that while some complaints were lodged when people violated lockdown norms near the hospital where the actor breathed his last, a few were lodged against persons for following the vehicle in which the actor’s body was carried to a farm house for the funeral.
The government also told the court that 10,843 persons have been arrested in connection with lockdown violations, and a penalty of ₹3.73 crore collected so far, besides the seizing of 1.05 vehicles since March 23.
Call 100 for violations
It was also pointed out by the government that people can call the toll free number 100 for police control rooms across all districts to lodge complaints about lockdown guideline violations at any time, and the necessary instructions for handling such complaints had already been issued to the police stations.
The government also said the station house officers of police stations, not below the rank of sub-inspector of police, have been authorised since April 4 to lodge complaints related to violations of the DM Act before the jurisdictional courts.
‘Legally enforceable’
Earlier, referring to a memo submitted on behalf of the Union government, Additional Solicitor General of India (Karnataka High Court) M.B. Naragund said that all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued for various establishments such as places of worship, restaurants, hotels, and malls were legally enforceable. Any violation of the procedure laid down will attract penal action under provisions of the DM Act as the SOPs form part of the guidelines issued by the competent authority under the Act, he said.
