The following proposition is for educational purposes only and claims nothing stated herein to

be true.

Group of Preachers and ors. v Union of Indus and ors.

Laquan is the world’s most populous country, known for its powerful government, pervasive
surveillance and stringent policies. On December 20, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO)
detected a series of medical cases caused by a virus of unknown etiology in Keung City of Laquan.
On 7th January 2020, Laquanian authorities identified a new virus as the causative agent for the
disease. They named the virus Sarona, which was then renamed by WHO as SAARS-VID-2 and
the disease caused by it as VID-91.

By mid-January 2020, nations across the globe had started reporting similar cases. Neetle, a
country with distinctly superior health facilities, and its neighboring regions began reporting cases
of VID-91 and were subsequently forced to go into complete lockdown.

On March 10, 2020, WHO declared VID-91 to be a pandemic. Around two million people had
been infected with the virus and 95,000 had lost their lives to it by the first week of April, 2020.
With no vaccine in place and lockdowns imposed in several parts of the world, the world economy
was crippled. Conditions continue to worsen every day even now.

Indus is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (~ 1.3 Billion) with a significantly
advanced medical system but huge income disparities. Laquan and Indus are neighboring countries
with a history of border tensions. At present, thousands of Laquan troops have forced their way
into Gajwan valley in Ladekh, in the disputed Kathmir region in Indus. Indian Leaders and military
strategists have clearly been left stunned. However, considering the size of their markets, both the
nations engage in regular trade.

The first case of VID-91 in Indus was reported on 30th January, 2020 and by the first week of April
2020, there were about 6000 infections and over 210 deaths. Following the social distancing
guidelines issued by WHO, a pan Indus lockdown of 21 days starting 25th March, 2020 was
declared by the Central government. This was extended several times being in place even now.

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This immediately affected all sectors of the economy like Railways, Infrastructure, Textile,
Agriculture, Transport, IT firms and so on. All strata of the society were adversely impacted.

The lockdown period is marked by the enforcement of a number of regulations, guidelines and
notifications in the country’s VID-19 affected regions. The Lockdown was placed when the
number of confirmed positive VID-19 cases in Indus was approximately 500. The lockdown had
slowed the growth rate of the disease by 6th April to a rate doubling every six days, and by 18th
April, to a rate of doubling every eight days.

The Group of Preachers (GOP) is an independent minority religious institution headed by Maulana
Abdali. It is a global organization with followers in over 80 countries who promote the principles
of their religion, Aslaam. They conducted an event of around 2100 people within their own
premises on 13th March, 2020 at a time when the government of Indus had started cancelling all
activities of mass gathering. More than half of those who were present at the event were
subsequently tested and put into quarantine. The Ministry of Health in Indus commented in its
official statement that those who attended the GOP event had become one of the biggest causes
for the spread of VID-91 in the country as most of them who were subsequently found positive
had travelled to different parts of the country before the lockdown was declared. Media reports
claimed that the gathering included citizens from countries that had already had the outbreak of
the virus in February 2020. It was reported across national media that it appeared that GOP
members were intentionally spreading the virus in the country as there were proved instances of
them defying the lockdown and non-declaration of travel history. The media went on to label them
as ‘Sarona bombs’ and used catchphrase like, ‘Sarona aaya, Maulana laya’ (Sarona is here,
Maulana has brought it.) Times of Indus, one of the most circulated newspaper of the country
claimed in its report that it has traced links of the GOP with terror activities in the past and with
flouting the visa guidelines. Following the public disclosure of the event on all media channels,
there was widespread hatred against the congregation. Instances were reported of health service
providers refusing to admit people belonging to the GOP.

An FIR is filed against Maulana Abdali and 7 other leaders under Section 3, The Epidemic
Diseases Act, 1897, and Sections 269, 270, 271 and 120B of the Indus Penal Code, 1860. Relevant
provisions of the National Security Act, 1980 were also invoked against the GOP members present

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at the congregation as it was alleged that they were non co-operative with the state departments
and health officials.

On 2nd April, 2020, the CEO of a temple in Shardi and his family hosted a religious event on the
occasion of Ram Navmi, a festival celebrated by people of Sindhu religion. Hundreds of devotees
gathered there despite the lockdown. The police tried to ensure that social distancing norms were
followed among the crowd but to no avail. The state government had issued instructions stating
that the celestial wedding ritual performed every year on this occasion should not be open for
viewing as it would necessarily create mass havoc in these times. This was not abided by and
people thronged the temple premises to witness the ritual and pray for relief from Sarona.

Members of the GOP filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court alleging that they have been
discriminated against. They submitted that even though similar instances of non-cooperation and
violations of guidelines had been reported in other parts of the country by members of other social,
political and religious groups, NSA was not invoked against them and this amounts to
discrimination.

Meanwhile, after the declaration of lockdown millions of migrant workers were stuck out of their
native places. With factories and workplaces shut down, they had to deal with loss of income,
shortage of food and other essentials and a looming uncertainty about their future. Grief-ridden
and panicked, the migrant workers repeatedly tried to reach their homes amid the lockdown. Since
transport facilities were also stopped, the workers were reportedly walking on foot across the
country. Tens of thousands of migrants, left without jobs and shelter because of the nationwide
shutdown, started out for their villages thousands of kilometres away violating all social distancing
norms.

This led to heavy criticism of the government. The Central Government issued notices to all the
news agencies instructing that nothing should be published without government approval to
prevent dissemination of fake news. The Home Ministry thereafter released guidelines saying that
every state must ensure that the migrants do not walk on roads or rail tracks. "States must counsel,
provide food and shelter and assure them that they would be able to travel on special trains," the
guidelines said. On 29th March, the ministry released Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I (A) in which it
acknowledged the plight of migrant workers and urged the State/Union Territory governments to
address the issue. However, while the governments formulated schemes ensuring that the poor
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shall get free additional rations, the distribution system failed to be effective. The entire month of
April witnessed multiple deaths reportedly from hunger.

On 1st May, the Indian Railways announced the launch of ‘Shramik Special’ trains for the migrant
workers and others stranded out of their native places. These trains were operational soon and
lakhs of migrant workers were transported to their native places. These trains were to run free of
charge to the passengers. Due to lack of coordination between originating states and railways, there
were reported incidents of some migrants being charged for the train tickets. No probe was set up
to look into the matter.

On 28th March, the Prime Minister had constituted a public charitable trust under the name of
‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Aid and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’. The
fund received approximately Rupees 10000 Crore in donations in the two months of its
constitution.

Seeing the plight of migrant workers and the reported lack of assistance from the government, an
NGO by the name of ‘Social Cause’ had filed an RTI demanding certain details of the expenditures
incurred on the fund. The RTI was denied. While the ambit of RTI with respect to the fund is being
dealt in a separate petition in the Delhi High Court, the NGO, on 15th May, 2020 has moved the
Supreme Court with a Public Interest Litigation on behalf of the migrant workers. The petition
claims that the premature and hasty imposition of lockdown by the Government followed by the
abject failure in implementing its policies has violated the fundamental rights of the migrant
workers.

Meanwhile, by the first week of March, several other government circulars were in place.
Maharashtha state government issued instructions to landlords and house owners to defer rent
collections from tenants for at least three months in the wake of the VID-91 crisis. In a circular
issued by the Maharashtha State Housing Department on 17th March, 2020, the landlords/owners
have been directed to not evict tenants due to non-payment of timely rent or rent exhaustion.
Several other states followed suit in a few days.

On 29th March, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I (A). This order,
inter alia,

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  Mandates all employers to pay wages of their workers on the due date without any
deduction
 Prohibits landlords from demanding payment of rent from tenants, including migrants, for
one month
 Imposes action against any landlord who forces labourers and students to vacate their
premises.

This was followed by another Order dated 31st March, 2020 which allowed Central government to
defer salaries of all Central employees, including those in All India Services, for six months. The
deferment shall be done by deducting payment of 6 days in every month, for a period of 2.5 years.
This was done citing great economic difficulties being faced by the government at the Centre and
States and in light of several states making demands of financial assistance from the Centre. The
Prime Minister addressing the action in his speech has promised that the deferred payments shall
be done as soon as the economic crisis is lifted.

Petitions flooded the apex court following the two Orders, challenging their constitutionality. The
Supreme Court has decided to club the petitions filed by Group of Peace and Social Cause with
these string of petitions and hear them together on 27th June, 2020.

*All laws of Indus are in pari materia with the laws of India.
*The demography and the cultural and religious history of Indus is in pari materia with that
of India.
*In case of facts and events, the participants shall constrict themselves to those given in this
factsheet, subject to the clarifications released subsequently.
ISSUES

1) Does the invocation of provisions of NSA, 1980 against the GOP amounts to
discrimination?

2) Does the allegedly premature imposition of lockdown and its allegedly ineffective
implementation violate the fundamental rights of Migrant Workers?

3) Are the two impugned orders, dated 29th March and 31st March constitutionally valid?

*Participants may formulate additional issues and sub-issues as per their convenience and
understanding.
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