As per the report published on Sunday by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Indian authorities have registered 23,094 First Information Reports (FIR) from March 2020 to March 2022 for violation of COVID-19 policies.

A total of 54,919 individuals were arrested under section 188 of the India Penal Code during this period. Fines were also imposed primarily as the punishment for COVID-19 policy violations with FIR to follow only on non-payment of such fines.

As per the report, the courts prescribed a plethora of variegated punishments for similar violations which ranged from Rs. 50 to Rs. 4,400 but the judgments do not clarify the reasonings applied for arriving at these numbers. 

As per the report, police often found more FIR to be registered instead of giving exorbitant fines.

The report concluded: “Instead of using criminal law to force people into compliance, the government could have encouraged voluntary compliance by providing people with vital information about the virus, essential resources and support.”