Confirming its verdict on making National and State highways liquor-free zones, the Supreme Court clarified on Friday that its prohibition on the sale of liquor within a distance of 500 metres from the outer edge of these main thoroughfares is not restricted to liquor shops alone but also includes other larger establishments.
The court said exempting establishments other than “shops involved in sale of liquor”, which includes bar-attached hotels, wine and beer parlours dotting highways, would amount to dilution of the objective of its December 15 judgment to prevent drunk driving, one of the major killers plaguing Indian roads.
Constitutional value
“The pernicious nature of the sale of liquor along the National and State highways cannot be ignored. Drunken driving is a potent source of fatalities and injuries in road accidents. The Constitution preserves and protects the right to life as an over-arching constitutional value,” the 32-page clarification order observed.
The court said its duty to protect public health and safety clearly overrides the interests of liquor traders.
The order was authored by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud for a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao. The Bench had heard 68 applications over two days. They all wanted the court to modify its December judgment.
The December verdict had directed States and Union Territories to stop the grant of licences to establishments located within 500 metres of national and State highways. April 1, 2017 was fixed as the date for phasing out existing liquor licences.
Counters AG’s opinion
The clarification runs completely counter to a legal opinion given recently by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi to the Kerala government that the December 15 judgment’s ambit was confined only to retail liquor outlets and not bigger establishments like bar-attached hotels and wine-beer parlours along highways in the State.
A petition filed by former Kerala Assembly Speaker V.M. Sudheeran, represented by advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, had alleged that a Cabinet decision had already been taken to extend the liquor licences on the basis of the A-G's opinion.
The court however, reduced the liquor-free zone along highways from 500m to 220m in areas with a population of 20,000 or less. The court reiterated that liquor vends should neither be accessible nor visible from the highways. So in areas in Himachal Pradesh, liquor can be sold beyond outside 220m from the highways.
In a further partial relief, the court took note of the fact that excise licence period varies in different States and extends beyond April 1, 2017. In such States, the court extended the deadline for phasing out the licences to September 30, 2017.
So, in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where the excise licences are valid till October 1 and June 30, respectively, there will be no ban on highway liquor sales till September 30, 2017.
However, the court denied Tamil Nadu any relief. It dismissed the State's request to reduce the no-liquor zone from 500 m to 100 m and held that the ban will start from April 1 itself.
Yet north-eastern States of Sikkim and Meghalaya got a full exemption from the 500-m no-liquor zone ban after the court took into consideration their hilly terrain and also the fact that 82 percent of its area was forest land and over 90 percent of its liquor shops would be closed if the ban was imposed strictly in its original form.
