Lal and Chand pleads guilty to the charge of failure to comply with orders of the Public Health Act

Ravin Lal and Shalvin Chand who were charged with failure to comply with orders of the Public Health Act will be sentenced on the 27th of this month.

According to the amended charges, Lal and Chand on the 10th of this month without lawful excuse failed to comply with an order of the Permanent Secretary of Health and Medical Services, namely by breaching the curfew hours between 8pm to 5am which was set in place for the protection of public health.

They have pleaded guilty to the charge.

They appeared before Nirosha Kannagara.

Last week the two were acquitted by Nadi Magistrate, Siromi Turaga for failure to comply with orders of the Public Health Act.

Magistrate Turaga had said in his ruling that the prosecution is prosecuting the accused on a non-existent law and the charge is bad in law.

However, High Court Judge Justice Vincent Perera had set aside the ruling.

Justice Perera reviewed the magistrate’s ruling after the matter was handed to him for review by Acting Chief Justice Kamal Kumar.

Justice Perera set aside the orders made by Magistrate Turaga on the grounds that the charge did say the accused failed to comply with section 69(1)(c) of the Public Health Act 1935 and the Public Health (Infectious Disease Regulation, 2020), the orders were issued by the Ministry for Health, the magistrate should have allowed the prosecution to amend the charge by deleting "Prime Minister' to "Minister for Health"; and the implementation of curfew orders was approved by the Minister for Health and Medical Services.

Justuce Perera also stated that the notice of the directives was given by the Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services via Extraordinary Gazette No.32 published on 4th April 2020.

Under the particulars of the charge by Police, Ravin Lal and Shalvin Chand on the 9th of April, 2020 in Nadi without lawful exercise failed to comply with orders of the Prime Minister of Fiji by breaking the curfew hours, an order that was deemed necessary for the protection of public health from an infectious disease, namely Novel Coronavirus.

In his judgement, Magistrate Turaga said the prosecution is relying on a declaration by the Prime Minister but not made by the Minister of Health pursuant to his powers set out in section (69)1 of the principal Act nor made pursuant to the Public Health [Infectious Diseases] Regulation 2020.

Magistrate Turaga had further said in his view, the charge, in this case, is defective.