Liquor ban is a positive step: SC

Supreme Court Justice Vikramajit Sen, who retires on Wednesday, wrote: “History has painstakingly made it abundantly clear prohibition has not succeeded. Therefore, strict state regulation is imperative. The state of Kerala had in the past forayed into prohibition, but found it unimplementable. Thereafter, keeping in mind heavy consumption of alcohol within the territory, it has experimented with other measures to user temperance if not abstemiousness.”

The bench said vulnerable persons, either because of age or proclivity towards intoxication or as a feature of peer pressure, more often than not, succumb to temptation. Banning public consumption of alcohol, therefore, in our considered opinion, cannot but be seen as a positive step towards bringing down the consumption of alcohol, or as preparatory to prohibition.

The bench said the liquor policy, therefore, is to be encouraged and is certainly not to be struck down or discouraged by the courts. How this policy is to be implemented, modified, adapted or restructured is the province of the state government and not of the judiciary.

The court cannot be blind to the fact that a social stigma, at least as far as the family unit is concerned, still attaches to the consumption of alcohol (at home). Free trade in alcohol denudes family resources and reserves and leaves women and children as its most vulnerable victims.