Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897


The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 is a law which was first enacted to tackle bubonic plague in Mumbai in former British India. The law is meant for containment of epidemics by providing special powers that are required for the implementation of containment measures to control the spread of the disease.
The Act has been routinely used to contain various diseases in India such as swine flu, cholera, malaria and dengue. In 2018, the Act was enforced as cholera began to spread in a region of Gujarat. In 2015, it was used to deal with dengue and malaria in Chandigarh and in 2009 it was invoked in Pune to combat swine flu. Starting in March 2020, the act is being enforced across India in order to limit the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Legal provisions

Section 2 of the Act reads:

2020 Ordinance

On 22 April 2020, the Government of India announced the promulgation of an ordinance, 'The Epidemic Diseases Ordinance 2020', to amend the act, adding provisions to punish those attacking doctors or health workers. The ordinance allows for up to seven years of jail for attacking doctors or health workers. The offense will be cognizable and non-bailable among other things.In addition to this, such cases need to be investigated in a time-bound and must be resolved in 1 year. Also, the law specifies that the guilty will have to pay twice the market value of the damaged property as compensation for damaging the assets of health care staff including vehicles and clinics.

COVID-19 pandemic

Following the COVID-19 pandemic the Cabinet Secretary of India on 11 March 2020 announced that all states and Union territories should invoke provisions of Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.