When the Delhi High Court ordered the acquittal of 70 Indian nationals linked to the Tablighi Jamaat and quashed 16 FIRs after finding them not guilty of gathering at the Nizamuddin Markaz during the COVID lockdown, the remark made by former Chief Justice of India N V Ramana — that a section of the media showing everything in this country through a communal angle is the problem that will ultimately bring a bad name to the country — needs to be underlined.
The High Court found that the accused had assembled before the issuance of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and had remained inside the religious facility only because the sudden lockdown had left them without any lawful means to leave, which meant that they had neither defied any directive nor committed any criminal act under the laws invoked against them, according to The Indian Express.
The court observed that the petitioners had not engaged in any of the five prohibited activities outlined in the official orders and held that their continued presence in the Markaz was not in contravention of the lockdown since no evidence suggested they had moved out unlawfully, tested positive for COVID-19, or contributed in any manner to the spread of the disease.
It further held that the essential requirement of prior communication of the prohibitory orders had not been established by the prosecution, and since the petitioners had already been inside the Markaz when the orders were promulgated, their mere residence did not attract penal liability under Section 188 of the IPC.
Charges under Sections 269 and 270 of the IPC were also quashed, as the prosecution failed to place on record any material to show that the accused had acted in a manner likely to spread infection. The court determined that the allegations did not meet even the basic threshold required to constitute these offences.
The court found no case under the Epidemic Diseases Act or the Disaster Management Act either, as there was no evidence of non-compliance with government directions nor any clarity on which specific orders had been breached during the petitioners’ stay at the Markaz.
The FIRs, registered at various Delhi police stations between March 31 and April 2, 2020, had accused the petitioners of harbouring foreign nationals in violation of lockdown rules, but the court noted that the congregation had been planned before the pandemic escalated and that the lockdown, beginning 25 March, had left the attendees with no recourse other than to remain confined in the premises.
In the wider case, the Crime Branch had filed 48 chargesheets and 11 supplementary chargesheets against 955 foreign nationals, invoking provisions of the Foreigners Act alongside epidemic-related laws, and among them, 908 entered plea bargains before the magistrate court, while eight others were discharged in August 2020 and 36 more were acquitted by December that year; no proceedings were initiated against three others who were identified as juveniles.
The judgment also took into account that similar cases filed during the pandemic had largely resulted in acquittals or discharges.