LEPERS (TAMIL NADU REPEAL) ACT, 1987
(Tamil Nadu Act 22 of 1987)
Received the assent of the Governor on the 10th June 1987 and first published in Part IV- Section 2 of the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary, dated the 12th June 1987.
An Act to repeal the Lepers Act, 1898, in its application to the State of Tamil Nadu.
Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Thirty-eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Lepers (Tamil Nadu Repeal) Act, 1987.
(2) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
Object & Reasons
Statement of Objects and Reasons - Lepers (Tamil Nadu Repeal) Act, 1987 (Tamil Nadu Act 22 of 1987). - The various provisions of the Lepers Act, 1898 (Central Act III of 1898) had been framed on the basis of the knowledge regarding leprosy, as also the means available at that time for treatment and control, and those provisions could no longer be considered necessary in the light of the present day knowledge about the disease. It is considered not desirable to deal with this disease on any special footing, but to allow leprosy to be dealt with like any other public health problem and that the continuance of Central Act III of 1898 tends to perpetuate the special footing on which this disease had been hitherto dealt with and indirectly, thereby, continuing the stigma with which it has been associated. Only when the stigma is removed, the leprosy patients will be encouraged to go for treatment in large numbers and thereby contribute to the reduction of the infective quantum. Employment of preventive measures as envisaged in the said Act such as arrest and physical detention of leprosy patients is not necessary and might even be subject to misuse.
2. All leprosy patients are not infectious. The Leprosy Control Programme has been in operation for over the last twenty years and this strategy of control has been found to be generally suitable considerable advances have been made in knowledge about leprosy, both in the laboratory as well as in the field, so that the general notion today with regard to the disease is quite different from what was prevailing in 1898. Hence, the Lepers Act, 1898 (Central Act III of 1898) has now become obsolete and unnecessary. There are provisions in the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939 (Tamil Nadu Act III of 1939) to deal with it as an infectious disease. Hence, it has been decided by the Government to repeal the Lepers Act, 1898 (Central Act III of 1898) in its application to the State of Tamil Nadu.
3. The Bill seeks to give effect to the above decision.
Published in Part IV-Section 1 of the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary, dated the 5th May 1987.
2. Repeal of Central Act III of 1898. - The Lepers Act, 1898 (Central Act III of 1898), in its application to the State of Tamil Nadu, is hereby repealed.
3. Removal of doubts. - For the removal of any doubts, it is hereby declared that on and from the date of commencement of this Act, any person detained in any leper asylum in any part of the State of Tamil Nadu under the repealed Act shall stand discharged, and any restrictions put on any of them by or under that Act from following any trade or calling, shall stand annulled.
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