The Bihar government moved the SC on Monday challenging the Patna high court verdict quashing the state’s policy to prohibit the consumption of liquor in the state and impose harsh punishments for violations.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and justices C. Nagappan and A.M. Kanwilkar agreed to hear the appeal on Friday on a “mention” made by senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan seeking urgent listing of the case.
The state, in its special leave petition, said the intention to go for total prohibition was declared by the present chief minister of Bihar in July 2015 that, promising that he would impose total prohibition if he got elected. The New Excise Policy, 2015 (NEP) was issued by the government in December 2015, with the objective of implementing a total ban on the consumption of alcohol throughout the state.
In declaring the prohibition policy as against the the Constitution, the high court has failed to consider whether the state can prohibit distribution and prohibition of liquor and whether the individual citizen can claim right to consume liquor as a fundamental right as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The principal question involved in the SLP is whether the state can prohibit distribution and consumption of liquor and whether the individual citizen can claim right to consume liquor as a fundamental right as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Bihar said the high court has failed to consider that bonafide efforts of the government to bring complete ban in performing its Constitutional obligations as cast under Article 47 of the Directive Principle of State Policy has been frustrating.
