DGHS cannot act beyond country’s basic laws

Speaking to the media today, he noted that his party would file a case in the Supreme Court this week against the arrest and subsequent quarantine of protesters based on an illegal circular.

Range Bandara pointed out that although it is possible to impose certain laws and regulations to protect the health of the people under the Quarantine Act, the Director General of Health has blatantly violated the people’s constitutional rights on assembly and expression of speech, through his recent circular.

He noted that the police had forcibly abducted the protestors and taken them for quarantine against their will, whereas according to the provisions of the Quarantine Act, only those who have been directly exposed or who are close associates of an infected person could be directed for quarantine.