Md Mustakimur Rahman :
In a country like Bangladesh, we often see businessmen are doing extra business by using various techniques during specific incidents/occasions such as holy Ramadan, Eid, Puja, Christmas, flood, heavy rain etc. To do extra business, sometimes the capitalists create an artificial crisis in the retail market by stocking the goods on a large scale. Consequently, consumers face numerous challenges to meet up their needs. This artificial crisis of goods is not new to us and the general people of Bangladesh are living with this dilemma since the inception of the country.
To overcome this predicament, in 2009, the government of Bangladesh has enacted the Consumer Rights Protection Act (CRPA) and since the establishment of this Act, the government is providing their limited logistic support and human resource to execute the Act appropriately and consistently. For example, it is very common to see the executive magistrates are imposing a limited amount of fine against the unlawful activities of the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, or somebody else. Considering the activities of the mobile court, it is to observe how the big fishes are dealing with the limited amount of fine and the CRPA. As of section 38 of the CRPA, a person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 (one) year, or with fine not exceeding Taka 50 (fifty) thousands, or with both for not showing the price list of the good. Similarly, the mobile court may impose fine of not more than 50 thousand taka for selling or offer to sell any goods, medicine, or service at a price higher than the price fixed under any Act or rules, states section 40 of the CRPA. The main purpose of imposing fine is to prevent the wrongdoers from doing unlawful activities, but the question is whether this limited financial penalty can change the behaviour of the wrongdoers or not? Based on the practices, it seems that for a wholesaler or importer, it is not a big deal to pay 50 thousand takas as fine as far as he or she does not have to go to jail. Thus, an importer or a wholesaler is pleased to pay fine again and again rather than to change their inhuman habit to cheat with the general people. As a result, it became a common habit of paying fine, and in return, the people are suffering continuously. Along with many past incidents, we are yet to forget the synthetic onion crisis of 2019 created by some unscrupulous businessmen. Nonetheless, the crisis that we have faced last year was in peacetime, but during this Corona pandemic, we are having a challenging time and it is one kind of state emergency. While the whole nation is fighting against the unseen virus, some unethical businessmen are taking advantage of this vulnerable situation.
As we know that to fight against Coronavirus, we should have a strong immune system and it has been identified that ginger plays a crucial role to develop a healthy immune system. Thus, at this difficult moment, we may need extra ginger to meet the demand. However, there is no natural crisis of ginger in the market, but, still, some dishonest businessmen are trying to increase the price by creating an artificial crisis. To counter this crunch, many executive magistrates are trying to find out the culprits and imposing fine under the CRPA not only for the involvement with the ginger business but also for other daily necessities. Nevertheless, it seems now the CRPA itself is not enough to fight against the culprits during this Corona crisis. Thus, we may need to think of other related laws which can impose some form of harsh punishments to prevent the businessmen from doing dirty businesses in this intense situation.
In this regard, let us go back to 1974 and have a look at the Special Powers Act. While we are talking about this despotic law, many of us may think that the Special Powers Act is an obnoxious piece of legislation and it contains many provisions with no minimum standard of basic human rights norms. However, the government may rethink about a couple of sections of the Special Powers Act during this Corona pandemic. At first, we can look into section 25 of the Special Powers Act 1974 and see whether section 25 may be applicable during this Corona pandemic. Section 25(1) states that “Whoever is found guilty of the offense of hoarding or dealing in the black-market shall be punishable with death, or with [imprisonment for life], or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years, and shall also be liable to fine. Provided that if, in the case of an offense of hoarding, the person accused of such offence proves that he was hoarding for purposes other than gain, whether financial or otherwise, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, and shall also be liable to fine.”
The above section means a person may receive the maximum punishment for hoarding is the death penalty. Nonetheless, it would indeed be very difficult to apply this section to the retailer due to the low gravity of offense done by them, however, it may be feasible to apply this section to make the big fishes accountable such as importers or wholesaler. Considering the capacity and capability, an importer or a wholesaler can stock a large scale of goods and it may ruin the whole market which may cause grave damage to the community and if they do such kind of unethical offense, it may be justified to impose rigorous punishment such as long-term imprisonment or death penalty.
We all know how important the medicine and hand sanitizer are for everybody during the Corona outbreak and it is very unfortunate for the nation to know that some mendacious businessmen are making fake and adulterated hand sanitizers. People may die if they use those adulterated medicine and hand sanitizer. To punish these culprits during the pandemic, we can use the Special Powers Act instead of the CRPA. Under section 25(C) of the Special Powers Act, a person shall be punishable for adulteration of, or sale of adulterated food, drink, drugs which may extend to five years of imprisonment and shall also be liable to fine, whereas, the same offense has lesser punishment under section 41 of the CRPA 2009 which may extend to 3 years of imprisonment or with fine not exceeding Taka 2 (two) lacs, or with both.
Undoubtedly, the mobile court is trying its best to control the market and the price of the goods, but due to the limited jurisdiction of the executive magistrates, they normally cannot impose any rigorous imprisonment while they operate a mobile court service. Henceforth, the culprits can easily get away by paying fine only but are not learning any lesson.
In legal jurisprudence, there are several aspects of punishment and one of the aspects under deterrent theory is not only to prevent the wrongdoer from doing the offense again but also to make the culprit as an example for others who have similar tendencies to do offenses. Thus, sometimes we need to impose some form of harsh punishment so that others may take a lesson. Considering the current scenario of Bangladesh, we may think of the Special Powers Act instead of the CRPA to control the market during this Corona outbreak. No matter what, during this pandemic, the government should not let any syndicate regulate the market which creates an artificial crisis in the market. If we need to apply the Special Powers Act to ensure the greater interest of the nation in this critical time, then why not?
(Md Mustakimur Rahman, faculty member, Dep. of Law, Notre Dame University Bangladesh; email: [email protected])
