Critical Evaluation of the Legal and Administrative Actions of the Government of Maharashtra During the COVID Pandemic in India

State of Maharashtra in India has been the worst affected and infected State. Since the early times of the pandemic, the State has seen a flurry of cases being recorded each day. Maharashtra is the home to a large segment of people converging from different parts of the country. As of today, Maharashtra is the second most populous State in the country. The total population of the State in 2021, according to the 2011 census projection is 12.62 crore . The city of Mumbai, the State’s capital and also being the financial capital of the nation has been in the news during the COVID-19 virus. Mumbai also houses the largest slum area in the Asian sub-continent, Dharavi. It had the most number of active cases in 2020 but has quickly geared up to face the challenge and has been under the praise of both, the Central government as well as the WHO , . The State government has been taking the challenge of fighting against the COVID-19 virus tightly. Since March 2020, when the first national lockdown in the entire country was declared by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the administrative agencies of the State government have taken up the mammoth task of preventing the spread of the virus. All the different Departments of the State government have played their role significantly in one way or the other. However, the researcher wishes to study the response of the government in the initial phases of the pandemic, the various administrative and legal decisions and policy changes that the Departments undertook while facing the challenge of COVID-19. The researcher has selected the following three Departments for the purpose of this study: i. The Department of Public Health; ii. The Department of Urban Development; iii. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.