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13. Before the destruction of property of any kind under Rule 10 or 11 the value of it
shall be assessed by a Panch of three persons including the President, who shall be an officer
(other than a plague authority) appointed by the District Magistrate by name or by virtue of
office and by general or special order. The President shall appoint the two other members.
Subject to the sanction of the District Magistrate or of any officer specially empowered by him
in this behalf, not being lower in grade than a First Class Magistrate, the award of the Panch
shall be final and conclusive.
14. The Police shall act under the orders given by any duly appointed plague officer
with regard—
(a) to compelling persons to submit to such regulations as may be made or approved
by the Medical officers appointed for any locality under these rules for the purpose of
inspection, detention and segregation of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from
the plague ; and
(b) to carrying out the provisions of Rules 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
15. The District Magistrates are to do their utmost, both personally and through others,
to make it generally understood that these rules are absolutely necessary for the public safety,
and to see that no needless inconvenience is caused to any one, that examinations, &c., are
carried out with as much regard as possible to sex and the customs of the country, and that
everything is done to meet the wishes of the patients so far as is compatible with the public
safety.
16. Within a municipal district the expenses of carrying into effect any of the measures
hereby authorized for cleaning or disinfecting any building, or destroying any hut or other pro-
perty shall, in the first instance, if no other funds have been made specially available for the
purpose, be defrayed out of Municipal Funds, but shall be recoverable from the owner or occupier
of such building or hut under the ordinary provisions of Bombay Act VI of 1873 in the same
manner, in all respects, as if the work had been carried out under the provisions of Section 77
of the said Act.
17. Disobedience to any orders issued by a plague officer under these rules will subject
the offender to a prosecution under Section 188, Indian Penal Code.
18. The provisions of this Notification are not intended to, and shall not, operate to
limit in any way the powers which either the District Magistrate or, within a municipal dis-
trict, the municipality may possess independently of the powers hereby conferred.
These rules were specially extended to cantonments by a farther order.
2. Government had previously on the 10th February despatched the
following telegram to all Collectors :
"It is essential to take all possible precautions against spread of plague. Instruct all
Revenue, Police and other Government officers to report every suspicious ease, and have move-
ments of persons from Bombay or Poona watched. If necessary, establish segregating camps
at places of arrival by land or water from Bombay, &c., and place arrivals in quarantine ; have
death-rate carefully watched in all places where it can be a useful guide. If necessary, take
measures to prevent all fairs and pilgrimages and large gatherings of people. Don't wait for
Government sanction to proceedings or expenditure that are urgently necessary."
3. Though the subsequent history of rules under Act III of 1897 belongs
to a later period, it may here be stated that after their issue on 20th February
suggestions for modifications or additions were received by Government
almost every day for some weeks ; and for the most part these suggestions were
promptly complied with. Eventually on the 29th March a new draft embody-
ing all the suggestions which had been accepted was prepared and published in
the Government Gazette. The rules—which were by a further order extended
to cantonments—were as follows :
"Whereas certain parts of the Presidency of Bombay are visited by, or threatened with
an outbreak of a dangerous epidemic disease, namely, bubonic plague, and whereas the
Governor of Bombay in Council is of opinion that the ordinary provisions of the law for
the time being in force are insufficient for the purpose of preventing the spread thereof in
parts other than the City of Bombay ; pursuant to the provisions of Section 2, sub-sections
(1) and (2), of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and in exercise of the powers in this behalf
conferred by the Governor General in Council under Section 2, sub-section (3), of the same
Act, the Governor of Bombay in Council is pleased to empower the officers hereinbelow
mentioned to lake the measures hereinafter specified to prevent the spread of bubonic plague
and is further pleased to prescribe the temporary regulations hereinafter set forth to be
observed by the public and all persons concerned :
1. In every local area where there is danger of plague, the District Magistrate, subject
to the general instructions of the Commissioner, may appoint special officers, either by name
or by virtue of office, to devise and carry out, under the District Magistrate's general
directions, all measures necessary to prevent the spread of the plague,
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