Liquor sale on highways: SC says it is clear on order but keeps option of changes in notification open

Apex court says it intends to dismiss petition by NGO against Punjab and Haryana HC orderallowing the Chandigarh administration to reclassify highways within city limits.

The court said its duty to protect public health and safety clearly overrides the interests of liquor traders. File photo

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed applications of private bars and hotels associations to modify/clarify the ban on sale of liquor alongside state and national highways .

A Special Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said such requests for modification and clarification of Supreme Court judgments is ‘unprecedented’ and not maintainable.

However, the Supreme Court said it intends to dismiss a petition filed by NGO Arrive Safe Society against a recent Punjab and Haryana High Court order allowing the Chandigarh administration to reclassify highways within city limits, thus allowing bars and hotels functioning within city limits to re-open.

The dismissal would open a way for other States to reclassify stretches of highways within their city limits and revive hotels and bars that were forced to shut down following the court ban.

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"Our thought was very clear in the judgment. So long as the highways remained highways, sale of liquor within 500 metres was banned. But now they have ceased to be highways,” Chief Justice Khehar observed.⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Supreme Court said their judgment was based on the intelligible differentia that highways with high speed traffic should be liquor free zones, but traffic is slow within city limits. It said law passed by the legislature or the executive can take away the basis of a judgment but cannot undo or de-legitimise a judgment, the court observed.

The court made it clear that it would not entertain any applications from private parties and has restricted itself to interlocutory applications filed by Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh.