Supreme Court: Won’t ban water supply to breweries

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain an appeal against an interim order of the Bombay high court directing the government to supply only 40 per cent water to the liquor industry and distilleries in Maharashtra due to the prevailing drought conditions in the state.

A vacation Bench of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and D.Y. Chandrachud pulled up the petitioner for seeking a complete ban on water supply to the liquor manufacturers, saying the Bombay high court has already passed an interim order in this regard. The Bench asked the counsel, “Why are you coming against an interim order of the high court, which has already allowed 60 per cent. These are all policy decisions. There has to be a balance.”

The counsel appearing for petitioner Sanjay Bhaskarrao Kale, said the entire region is severely drought-prone and there is a policy in this regard. To this, the bench said these are all policy decisions and the court’s interference will be like taking over governance. The Bench dismissed the petition as withdrawn after the counsel agreed to withdraw the plea. The court, however, granted the petitioner the liberty to approach the high court for modification of the order.

The appellant activists submitted that as per the recent order of the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay high court the state can supply only 40 per cent of the water to these industries as there will be a 60 per cent cut in the supply. Counsel said as Maharastra is facing acute drinking water crisis, the water level in the storages has gone down and under these circumstances the state government should not supply even this 40 per cent water to the distilleries.

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court has asked the Maharashtra government to cut water supply to distilleries and breweries in Aurangabad by 60 per cent from May 10. The court asked the state to also cut supply to other industrial units in Marathwada by 25 per cent after May 10. These water cuts will be effective till June 27, the court said.