NEW DELHI: The law commission in its latest report has recommended scrapping of the colonial era 127-year-old Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and replacing it with a new legislation that would give more teeth to authorities in containing the spread of Covid-like pandemic.
The commission, which submitted the report to the govt on Feb 7, said that “future outbreaks of epidemics are a real possibility” and hence there is need to revisit and strengthen the law.
It has recommended that the govt prepare an epidemic plan for dealing with all the outbreak across the country.
The law commission said that the amendment in the Epidemic Diseases Act brought by the govt in 2020 fell short of the requirement as critical gaps and omissions remained.