Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi has, in an opinion given to the Kerala government, said that the Supreme Court’s ban on sale of liquor within 500 metres of National and State highways is actually confined to retail liquor outlets and not bars, pubs or restaurants.
In its verdict on December 15, 2016, a three-judge Bench of Justices (retired) T.S. Thakur, D.Y. Chandrachud and A.M. Khanwilkar said the ban was necessary to curb drunk-driving. It noted that drunk-driving was behind a large number of road accidents and tragic deaths. Mr. Rohatgi was approached by the Kerala government for his opinion as the SC deadline for the ban, April 1, 2017, was fast-approaching.
Incidentally, Mr. Rohatgi had appeared in the Supreme Court for some private bars owners against the Kerala government’s liquor policy in August 2015. He was the Attorney-General even then, but he had appeared in his private capacity against the State’s policy to ban serving of liquor in all except five-star bars. Ignoring objections raised by a lawyer to his appearing for Kerala’s four-star private bar and hotel owners, Mr. Rohatgi had submitted in court then that the policy impacted the ordinary man who would be deprived of an affordable watering hole.
