Ban was based on Centre’s studies: SC

Bench says it is not assuming executive or legislative powers through this action

The Centre may be placed in an unenviable position if States, Union Territories and liquor associations approach it for relief against the Supreme Court’s ban on liquor vends along National and State Highways.

For one, the Supreme Court has put it on record that the “basis and foundation” for the ban was derived entirely from studies done by the Central government over the past decade.

Secondly, a Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao went a step ahead to record that the Centre had pledged its “unequivocal” support to such a ban.

Justice Chandrachud, who wrote both the December 15, 2016 judgment and the March 31, 2017 order, made it clear that the Supreme Court was not assuming executive or legislative powers by declaring the ban, instead, it was merely following the Centre’s decade-old wish to remove liquor vends from highways.

“We must at the outset notice that this court, while exercising its jurisdiction, has neither formulated policy nor (as we shall indicate) has it assumed a legislative function,” Justice Chandrachud observed in the March 31 order. The order said the ban was based on material ranging from the policy of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH); the decision of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), an apex body for road safety; Centre’s advisories to States for over a decade; and the Parliamentary mandate of zero tolerance for drunken driving.

Official data

The Bench said it banked on official data produced by the MoRTH to show the extent of road accidents caused by drunken driving.

“The judgment of this court adverted to the decision taken in a meeting held 13 years ago by the NRSC to the effect that licences for liquor shops should not be given along the National Highways,” Justice Chandrachud observed. The court said the decision to ban liquor vends came after extensive study of MoRTH advisories to States and Union Territories dating back to 2007.