SC breather for Bihar liquor firms with unsold stockpile

The Bench reasoned that the companies are only seeking time to sell the liquor outside the State.

A file picture of country liquor stock being destroyed in Patna.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave liquor companies in Bihar two more months to take their existing stocks out of the State which has prohibited the consumption, sale and manufacture of alcohol.

A Vacation Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Deepak Gupta extended the deadline from May 31 to July-end.

When the Bihar government objected to the move saying liquor was now classified as “illegal trade,” the Bench reasoned that the companies were only seeking time to sell the liquor outside the State.

“They are only seeking time for disposal of the stocks,” Justice Sikri said, posting the case for July 31.

The court was hearing a plea by the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies for more time to dispose of their unsold stocks lying in the warehouses of the Bihar State Beverage Corporation.

10-year imprisonment

The companies had argued that holding on to the stockpile beyond May 31 would be an offence punishable with a minimum 10-year imprisonment.

In some cases, they pleaded that destruction of the stocks would require permission from the State Pollution Control Board, and this would take time.

In October 2016, the court had given the thumbs-up signal to the Bihar government by staying a Patna High Court order quashing the State’s prohibition law, while observing that there are no rights to be claimed regarding anything to do with liquor.

Govt. petition

“Liquor and fundamental rights do not go together,” the court had observed, while hearing a petition filed by the Nitish Kumar government against the September 30, 2016 order of the High Court.

The government had notified the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 to ensure that the ban on sale and consumption of alcohol including Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as well as spiced and domestic liquor, continued in the State.