On 21 April 2020, the single bench of Justice Dr. Anandamohan Bhattarai issued an order in the name of the office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers et al. to file the written response within 15 days of the order. The order highlighted to ensure that the people are not subjected to ill-treatment during lockdown and that their rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not violated. Hence, the Court has issued orders responding to the various writs filed at the SC. Furthermore, the bench ordered the defendants to appear before the Court on 23 April 2020 along with writs 076-WO-0932, 076-WO-0933, 076-WO-0934, 076-WO-0936, 076-WO-0938 and 076-WO-0940 (scheduled for hearing on 23 April) to discuss whether or not to issue the interim order.
The order of the court came in response to the widespread atrocities and excessive use of force by the Police during lockdown. On 20 April 2020, Advocacy Forum-Nepal, Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRDA), International Legal Foundation-Nepal had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court of Nepal requesting the Court to (i) issue an interim order to allow people to step out of their home to buy food, water and medical supply and if the government is unable to do so, identify the people in need of those items and supply the items to their homes (ii) to issue an order to immediately stop excessive use of force, inhuman and degrading treatment to the civilians in the name of enforcing the lockdown and (iii) to issue other necessary orders to form an investigation body to investigate the excessive use of force and ill-treatment of civilians, prosecute the offenders as per law and provide appropriate reparation including medical expenses to the victims of human rights violations.
The petition highlighted the widespread use of force by the police in various parts of the country in the name of enforcing the government mandated lockdown. Not only the civilians whom the police claim were wandering around the streets for no reason were ill-treated and assaulted by the police, 3 doctors (Shambhu Khanal, Tej Prakash Shah and Bikash Shah) walking towards residence after finishing their duty at Teaching Hospital Maharajgunj were also beaten up by the police on 15 April 2020. This is just a tip of iceberg and a vivid example of abuse of authority and the fact that the police does not ask reason for being on the street before showering batons and boots on people. In addition to this, the petition highlighted the death of Jainab Khatun, a civilian who died as a result of police beating on 13 April 2020, which is a blatant violation of a person’s right to life, a non-derogable right which cannot be suspended in any circumstances. The examples stated in the writ petition are glaring examples of how the police is ill-treating and inflicting physical and mental torture (under the definition of Article 1 of the Convention against Torture) on the people during lockdown.
The petition stated that the Infectious Disease Act, 1964 already has a provision on prosecuting the people who violate the lockdown or create hurdles for the police to enforce the lockdown. Despite this, the police taking the matter into their hand, and acting as an adjudicating body mandated to punish offenders is unacceptable and against the law. Every person has a right to fair trial before being subjected to punishment for the offense he/she has committed and this right cannot be suspended or justified under any circumstances. Hence, the violators should be punished as per the law.
