The Bihar government has decided to bring in fresh amendments to the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 in the coming Assembly session, apparently to cut down arrests under the stringent law and “unclog the court cases”.
On March 8, a team of officials from Rajasthan visited Bihar to study the impact of total prohibition and had an hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. While hearing a petition the same day, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh, asked the Bihar government to place before the court the social and legislative impact of the liquor law and to collect data on the number of prosecutions under the Act.
While referring to the increase in number of cases in lower courts and the Patna High Court after the law was passed and which had put additional workload on the already overburdened judiciary, the court said the government should have thought about the fallout of its policy decision before bringing in law. The Bench further said the State had to look into all aspects before bringing these kinds of laws, and fixed it for further hearing in May first week.
Appearing for the Bihar, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar informed the court that the government was considering bringing an amendment to the law in the coming Assembly session to make it more efficacious.
Ever since the law was passed in April 2016, the government had brought in amendments to it several times.
‘Draconian’
Earlier, a provision of the law, termed by Opposition leaders as draconian, which ensured the arrest of all family members even if one of them was caught drinking liquor, along with community fines, was amended and done away with.
Recently, Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana stated that the new liquor law was a case study of “lack of legislative foresight” and had “clogged courts with bail applications”.
“After the Supreme Court regularly started taking on the government on the strict provisions of the liquor law that resulted in the overcrowding of jails, the government is compelled to take such amendments. Otherwise, this has been Mr. Kumar’s most ambitious policy which he has saying has a successful impact on society”, a senior Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader told The Hindu.
Against a total capacity of 55,000 prisoners in the State’s jails, currently 76,000 are lodged in them. Besides, the lower courts and the High Court have over 20,000 bail applications pending before them. Over four lakh cases under the new Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016, are currently registered with over 3.5 lakh arrests. Several policemen and Excise and Prohibition Department officials have been suspended and are facing departmental proceedings under the law. Recently, over 40 people died in different districts due to hooch.
Use of drones
The government, of late, had pressed drones, drone-fitted copters and satellite phones to locate illegal liquor manufacturing units, especially in the riverine areas. “Thousands of litres of liquor were seized, illegal country-made manufacturing units demolished and several arrests made after drones and satellite phones were introduced”, a senior official of the Excise and Prohibition Department said.
“The government may bring in fresh amendments to the liquor law during the current budget session to cut down arrests and unclog the cases in lower courts and the High Court”, the RJD leader said. Under the fresh amendments, “those who will be held for the first time after drinking liquor, can be released with a fine, or if they’re in jail on similar charges too would face a summary trial and released”.
Most of them who were in jail under the liquor law were first-timers, said a senior police official.
