The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday directed the Punjab and Haryana governments to ensure that no liquor vends were operated on national and State highways passing through the States, by framing a new excise policy.
While the Punjab government said it would frame such a policy by March, Haryana said it would move the Supreme Court as it is beyond the jurisdiction of the High Court to decide the excise policy, which is a huge revenue earner for the State.
Haryana had earlier broken the convention and auctioned liquor vends for two years to escape the High Court’s earlier order in this regard.
Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, heading the bench, observed that the matter concerned the lives of people which were more important than government revenue.
The order came on a petition by a Chandigarh-based NGO, Arrive Safe Society, which had, in 2012, moved the court seeking a ban on liquor vends on highways.
As soon as the notices were issued, Haryana swiftly moved to frame its excise policy for two consecutive years and also auctioned liquor vends.
In December, the court took umbrage to the two-year policy during the pendency of the petition and directed that any contractor who closed down his vends on highways in accordance with the High Court order would be liable to get a refund of his security deposit.
The court has set March 18 as the deadline for the two States to frame new excise policies and directed that Haryana’s policy for 2014-15 framed last year would not be valid.
