Which of the following gave legal basis to extraordinary powers exercised by the Government of India during Lockdown? 1) Mental Health Care Act, 2017 2) Disaster Management Act, 2005 3) Enemy Property Act, 1068 4) Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 Select the correct answer from the codes given below.

The correct answer is C.

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (statement 2) and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (statement 4) were the two laws invoked for the 2020 lockdown. The Union government used the DM Act's wide powers, including Section 10(2)(l), to issue binding orders through the National Disaster Management Authority. The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, a colonial-era law, gave governments special powers to make regulations to contain infectious disease.

• Statement 1 is wrong: the Mental Health Care Act, 2017 protects the rights of persons with mental illness. It has no link to emergency powers over movement.
• Statement 3 is wrong: the Enemy Property Act, 1968 (printed as 1068 in the question) deals with property left behind by enemy nationals after the wars with Pakistan and China.

Core concept: emergency powers in a federal system must rest on specific statutes, not on a general sense of crisis. This connects to Polity on Centre-State relations and to Mains questions on whether the DM Act's delegated powers had adequate checks.

Trap: options A and D look attractive because the Mental Health Act and the Enemy Property Act sound like emergency laws. Check what each statute actually covers.